In my family, we are blessed to have many members who chose teaching for their profession.  My mother was a teacher.  Most of her teaching career was spent teaching high school and college level students, so teacher appreciation gifts were not very common in our household.  (Very few high school students have the money or foresight to buy gifts for their teachers!)

However, my aunt taught kindergarten for over 30 years.  All kindergartners love to give their teachers a gift. And there are several occasions for buying gifts for kindergarten teachers – First Day of School, Christmas, Teacher Appreciation Week, Last Day of School, and Teacher’s Birthday.

My Aunt has received every kind of gift you can imagine.  Of course she always loved the handmade gifts the children made themselves.  And they were prolific.  I’m sure many of the children thought she would keep those treasures forever, but she would have had to buy a second home to house them all.  My aunt was like many teachers, in that she often spent much of her own money purchasing items for the classroom.  So gift cards to the local school supply store or a local craft or discount store were always appreciated.

Then there were the Christmas trinkets and “I Love My Teacher” items.  Her “stash” included mugs, towels, picture frames, socks, stuffed animals, and candles.  She did get some good use out of many of these items, but sadly, many went into a box to be donated or passed on to us nieces and nephews who could use the items.  The gifts my aunt got the most use out of were items that could be “used up”, such as soaps, soup mixes, candles, and candies.  Our family loved it when she got candies and sweets for Christmas, as she usually brought them to share at our Christmas celebration.

In the end, the very best gifts she received were the memories and the very funny stories that have kept the entire family in stitches for the past 30 years!