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Tipping can be tough in a recession. A recent Consumer Reports survey of 1,000 people found about one-quarter of Americans say they’ll tip less this holiday season than they did last year. Just 6 percent plan to tip more.

“Compared with the prior holiday season, fewer people are tipping a variety of service providers, and 26 percent expected to be providing less in tips,” says Tobie Stanger, senior money editor at Consumer Reports.

Some of that decline may come from consumers dropping services altogether, although the survey didn’t ask about that topic. “For instance, we don’t have a cleaning lady anymore — we feel terrible, we liked her, but we were trying to save money,” says Stanger.

Just two groups received a tip from the majority of respondents: 71 percent tipped cleaning workers (median gift, $50) and 56 tipped teachers (median gift, $20), although teachers were more likely to get a present of some kind.

“The cleaning person is in your house every week or every two weeks, it’s personal, you see that person often, and they’re typically not paid well, so there’s more of a concern about tipping when possible,” Stanger says. “Very few people tipped their garbage collector or mail carrier — those people don’t enter the house. There’s less of a personal relationship.”

Who Gets What?

Consumer Reports found average tips of $20 for hairdressers, garbage collectors and postal workers (who are limited by Postal Service rules to non-cash gifts worth less than $20 — and no alcohol). The survey found landscapers receive an average of $30; manicurists and barbers, $10; pet-care providers, $25; and newspaper carriers, $15. But in all these categories, less than one-third of people gave any kind of tip.

Tipping is also a regional phenomenon, with consumers in the Northeast and West Coast more likely to dole out rewards than those in the central and southern states. “In my neighborhood in New York, the school bus driver and school bus monitor both get tips; in my friends’ neighborhood in Colorado Springs, no one would think to do that,” says Stanger.

Carolyn Danckaert of the Center for a New American Dream, which advocates simplifying the holidays, says it’s better to go with a homemade gift for a family member to save money and maintain a cash tip for a service worker. “I wouldn’t look to tips as my first way to save money; reducing one’s consumption doesn’t necessarily mean eliminating or reducing monetary giving,” she says. “A teacher can more readily to adapt to a reduction in tips, but with people who might be more economically fragile it becomes a bigger need.”

For example, a babysitter, who typically works for an hourly wage with no benefits, might receive at least one week’s pay, all the way up to one month’s pay for a nanny who has been with the family for multiple years.

Many schools ask parents to contribute to a collective fund that is then distributed to teachers based on seniority. But there are always those parents who insist on an individual gift, says Leonard Green, a professor in the psychology department at Washington University in St. Louis, who has studied tipping.

“Overwhelmingly teachers do not rely on gifts and money, but neurotic parents are worried that if they don’t give a gift the teacher will take it out on little Billy,” says Green. “If she really is going to, you should worry more about whether you want that person teaching.”

Making It Count

Green suggests that gifts for teachers “can be changed into a real token of appreciation — homemade jams or cake or cookies,” he notes. “If a teacher has a certain interest you could get them a paperback novel or nonfiction book or a magazine subscription.”

Danny Kofke, a special needs teacher in Atlanta, says he most appreciates the thank you notes he’s received from parents. “It’s powerful. It solidifies what we do every day,” he says. “When I’m having a bad day sometimes I look back at those notes and remember, ‘this is why I’m a teacher and tomorrow will be a better day,’ and it keeps it all in perspective. This is my tenth year and I still remember a thank you note I got from my first year teaching.”

If parents do decide to give a monetary gift, Kofke recommends a gift card to a discount store such as Wal-Mart or Target. “We can get teachers supplies there. I get food items for the kids for snacks, and it can go a long way in filling up the classroom with stuff you need,” he says. Another idea: Give a career boost. Write an admiring letter about the teacher and send it to the principal.

For consumers in major cities like New York, the knotty dilemma is not what to give a teacher but what to tip the doorman. “It really does matter, because you need good service during the year,” says Green. “It’s not simply appreciation of past service but more so for the future. At certain places, the doormen really do have a lot of power, and you don’t want to get on their bad side.”

How much to tip a doorman depends on how many the building has, how often you interact with them, and the quality of service received. I once lived in a New York building that had two 24-hour entrances and at least a dozen doormen, so they each received $20 to $30. A gift of $50 might be more appropriate if only one person mans the door.

If you really don’t have the money, “try to sit down and write a lovely note about how you really appreciate person’s help, and you wish it could have been a larger tip because they deserve it, but it’s been a difficult time,” says Green. “The doorman’s not going to feel great getting less money, but that’s one way to prevent the doorman feeling he’s unappreciated or snubbed by you.”

Some co-ops and condos are moving toward collective gifts for building service workers.  “You have to be prepared for at least two things: Some people don’t like that because they want to give more to try to get better service,” says Green. “The other is the free rider, who says, ‘as long as the whole condo is giving the tip I don’t have to give.’ You’re not going to give a note that says ‘thanks from everybody except Mr. Billingsly in Apt. 2C.’”

To avoid free-loaders, Green suggests a peer-pressure technique he used for department socials: People who put money in the collection box for beer and snacks got a gold star. “That month we got so many more donations,” he recalls. “You could put gold stars on the doors of people who have given.”

If that doesn’t fly with the neighbors on Park Avenue, Green suggests sending a second reminder saying, “‘we’re sending this only to those who haven’t donated as we are still hopeful you might,’” he says. “Then it’s, ‘uh oh, we know who you are.’”