Tiny gifts for teachers

A teacher receives thirty presents in one week, which is the fact everything on this page is chosen against. It rules out the mug, the ornament and anything else that needs a shelf. It leaves two kinds of thing: something that runs out, and something small enough to live in a bag. Hand creams and balms are the first; keyrings, pocket notebooks and four-color pens are the second. Both are cheap enough that a class can club together for a set rather than sending thirty separate items.

If the whole class is giving, the arithmetic is the useful part. A box of twenty-five lip balms at nineteen dollars is seventy-six cents a family; the same nineteen dollars buys one boxed hand-cream trio, which reads as a proper present from one child. Neither is better: they answer different questions. The one thing worth avoiding is the personalized piece with a name on it, unless you are certain of the spelling, because a misspelled name is worse than a plain one.