Gilded Age Office Gift Etiquette

It is not customary, but sometimes employers are moved to make a present to employees in appreciation of services in addition to the salary paid.

CHRISTMAS PRESENTS   

The matter of giving Christmas presents is one of individual taste. A stenographer is at liberty to give presents to her employer and those who are her companions in the office if she feels so inclined, but if she does not it would not be considered “a breach of etiquette.” It is not customary, but sometimes employers are moved to make a present to employees in appreciation of services in addition to the salary paid. If the firm or others in the office should offer the stenographer one or more gifts at the glad Christmastide she would be very rude if she did not accept such. – San Francisco Call, 1898

 🍽️Etiquette Enthusiast, Maura J. Graber of The RSVP Institute of Etiquette, is the Site Editor of the Etiquipedia© Etiquette Encyclopedia 

Gilded Age Christmas Etiquette

Give your wife something for herself, not a piece of furniture or an article for family use. Ditto as to your husband. 
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Christmas Chimes

Do not make Christmas a day of balancing accounts of gifts. Santa Claus comes down the chimney when love kindles the fire. Christmas is the day when the children get up without being called. Better is a little gift where love is, than a necklace of diamonds for appearance's sake. 

The most approved invitation etiquette for a Christmas dinner is that prescribed in Luke xiv., 12-14. Give your wife something for herself, not a piece of furniture or an article for family use. Ditto as to your husband. How much brighter the fires on our own Christinas hearths will look when we know that we have been the means of brightening a fire that had grown dim on some other hearthstone. Good Housekeeping, 1889

Etiquette Enthusiast, Maura J. Graber, is the Site Editor for the Etiquipedia© Etiquette Encyclopedia