We do the dessert thing for Thanksgiving at our school. We get parents to donate about 60 pies. On the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, we number the pies, and the staff draw a number as they come in and match it with a pie. They absolutely LOVE it.
I read something on here I thought was really cool...get enough donated deserts for each teacher and have a desert raffle where they draw a number 1-whatever and based on their number they get 1st pick at a desert on display. Do that down the line till all the deserts are gone. Easy do...not too much hassle and would be a nice thing to accomplish....
Of course you'll have the last two "snoopy tree deserts" but it's all in the spirit.
Haven't gotten around to doing it though so I have no real advice for you on the mechanics...d
While it's never wrong to want to do something for teachers, I personally think Christmas is a good time to scale down or do something really small. Everyone is getting gifts and goodies. Classes / individual kids organize gifts. Teachers who are friends give gifts for each other. Everyone loves sweets but is worried about those extra indulgences. Then - as a topper - not everyone celebrates Christmas, and is it fair for the PTO to celebrate a religious holiday? If it were just me deciding, I'd either do something practical to help lower the stress of the season or something very small, saving the PTO effort for when nothing else is going on and you can focus on the teachers. Also, this is a hard time for families if you plan an event that requires a lot of volunteers or donated items.
Again - I'm not advising to do nothing, but I'd keep it a token gift. For instance, one year we simply had a nice smelling votive candle in an inexpensive glass holder. (Not Christmasy.) We added a note tied on with a pretty ribbon - something like: "Happy Holidays and thanks for lighting the way for our children's success!" It was easy and inexpensive. We spent less than $1 per staff member and two volunteers had it all ready in a couple of hours.
If you decide to do food (like a breakfast or lunch) - that's always welcome. However, watch out for:
1) Timing - don't plan something the last day of school that might have huge leftovers. Dealing with them is a problem.
2) Think carefully about sweets. On the one hand teachers love them, on the other hand they may be trying to cut down and "save" themselves for the holiday.
