“Happy Holidays”Is Not Just a Lip Service“节日快乐”可不是说说而已

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提起“小费”，或许你曾有所耳闻，付小费是一种西方文化，被视为社交礼仪的一种。中国人是“每逢佳节倍思亲”，美国人则是“每逢佳节倍感恩”。你了解美国节日的“小费“文化吗？请看文章。

Holidays in December

12月的节日

又到了每年的节日季。我的美国邻居们非常热衷于冬季的节日，会用无数的霓虹灯装饰房屋，其中一位甚至将位于他长长的汽车道两旁的树上挂满了灯泡，让左邻右舍在晚上看起来如仙境般美丽。人们在12月庆祝不同的宗教节日。12月25日是基督教徒庆祝耶稣诞生的圣诞节，而光明节是犹太人纪念圣殿并把它重新献给上帝的节日，日期通常与圣诞节差不多。近年来，美国人口在种族、信仰和宗教习俗方面变得更加多样化，圣诞节期间你可能会遇到犹太人、穆斯林教徒、佛教徒，甚至无神论者，因此作为节日问候的“圣诞快乐”就显得过时了，取而代之的是“节日快乐”，这也是过去二十多年里文化方面的一个较大变化。

It is that time of the year again， the holiday season. My neighbors are a bit over zealous about winter holidays， and they decorated their houses with numerous neon lights. One neighbor even wrapped trees along his long drive way with hundreds of light bulbs， making the neighborhood look like a fairyland at night.

People celebrate different religious holidays in December. Christmas， the birth of Jesus Christ， is celebrated on the 25th by people of Christian faith. The Jewish holiday， Hanukkah， usually takes place around Christmas as well， which cele- brates the rededication of the Holy Temple in Jerusalem in the 2nd century. Hanukkah is observed for eight nights and days. In recent years， the population in America has become more diverse in ethnicity， faith， and religious practices， and“Merry Christmas”as a holiday greeting has become obso-lete since everyone you meet during Christmas time may not be Christian but could be Jewish， Muslim， Buddhist， or even atheist. So， one of the big culture change here over the past two decades has been that people replaced“Merry Christmas”with“happy holidays”as a greeting for the sea-son to be more“culturally correct.”

“Tipping”Season

“小费”季

节日季重在给予。在12月这个节日季里，各类慈善组织会向你去函，请你以捐赠形式支持他们的事业，比如研究机构、青年俱乐部、动物保护组织、退伍军人宣传机构等。除了那些大型慈善机构，你还要向很多人表达感激之情，为他们在过去的一年里给你提供过的服务有所表示，换言之，你要向他们“付小费”。由于这种小费并无明确标准，所以很难弄清楚应该给谁小费，给多少，是给现金还是非现金礼物。那么，圣诞节期间你应该给周围的哪些人赠送礼物或者“付小费”呢？或许是与你的生活密切相关的人，比如理发师、报纸派送员、清洁工等，或许是在过去的一年里为你服务过的其他人，这取决于你对他们工作成果的认可度以及他们的工作时间。而小费数额也有讲究，给太多或太少都会被认为是不敬的表现。给小费是一门艺术，有时如何给小费比给多少更重要。

The holiday season is a season to give. All kinds of charitable organizations will send you letters for donations to support their causes， such as research institutes， clubs for youth， boys and girls scouts， animal protection organizations，veterans advocacy agencies，and so on and so forth.You even receive requests from the fire department and police department for donation for funds for officers who lost their lives in the line of duty.

Besides those big charities，there are also many indi-viduals that you show to show gratitude and give gratuities for the work they did for you in the past year；in other words， you should“tip”them.Since there is not a clear guideline on Christmas tipping， it is very tricky to figure out who you should tip， how much to give， and whether to give cash or a non-cash gift.

Then， who are those around you that you should give a gift during Christmas？ Probably your barber or hairdress-er should get a gift， who have made you look decent in the past year. Your newspaper deliverer should be tipped， who made sure that the paper always arrives at your door before sunrise； your garbage remover definitely should be tipped； otherwise， what are you going to do with the piled-up trash？ Your yard worker should be tipped： the green lawn and the pretty flowers didn’t just come by themselves. Besides those， others who have worked for you during the year probably should be tipped as well. The bottom line for a decision on who you should give a gift depends on your satisfaction of the work and the length of time they have worked for you，

How much to give is another challenge in gift-giving during Christmas time. Giving too much or too little could both be disrespectful and even insulting. For your barber， a cash gift of the cost of a haircut， $20～$30， is plenty. For your news-paper boy，yard worker， garbage remover，give at least $20 a person. Tipping is an art and sometimes how you tip is more important than how much you tip. Christmas tips are usually handed out in a greeting card with a handwritten thank-you note.

To Give or Not to Give

给，还是不给？

今年节日季，我为该给儿子的老师们送什么感到发愁。是直接送现金，还是购买和现金数额相当的礼物？我只好让儿子自己来挑选送什么礼物给他的老师们，他送给两位老师一人一个瓷制米老鼠。我一直在为该不该给邮差付小费而感到困惑，邮差每天风雨无阻地开车为我送信，我是否该给他小费呢？但是邮局是由美国政府管理，所有工作人员都是联邦政府雇员，给他们小费有可能被视为“贿赂联邦官员”。下次再见到邮差开车经过时，或许最好的做法就是向他挥挥手，说一句“节日快乐。”

This season， I scratched my head when it came to make a decision on what to give to my son’s teachers for Christmas. Should l give a cash gift？ What if other kids’ parents cannot afford a gift？ What if some other kids’par-ents can give a lot more than l can？ Would expensive gifts create favoritism among the teachers that would affect their practice in treating all kids equally？ So， l let my son， Jonathan， do his own picking of gifts for his teachers-he brought two porcelain Mickey Mouse to school， one for Miss Penny and one for Miss Pat.

I always wonder whether l should tip my mailman， who drives that postal truck to deliver my mail every day， rain or shine. But， the postal office is run by the United States Gov-ernment. All the postal workers are federal employees... Tipping them？It could be viewed as“bribing a federal of-ficer.”Probably， the best thing to do is to wave at the mail truck and say“Happy Holidays”next time it comes.