I think there are some good information here, so might as well add on to it, even though it is not brand new.
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I would ask your boss what the barn generally does for Christmas. That way you can get kind of an idea of what sort of gift giving is happening. My trainer has a tack room full of stuff the last thing she needs is more horse equipment! I’m at the point in my life where I don’t need or want for anything so consumables are my preference. Count me in as one of the make/buy Christmas cookies or something along those lines. Coffee (just find out if they use ground, bean, Keurig or Nespresso), wine/alcohol is also a good gift.
Another thing is if you do any kind of craft, needlework those can make nice gifts too. One year I was laid off 1st week in December, stressed I started knitting again which turned into some nice presents for most of my family and friends.
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My barn is doing a secret santa type of thing this year. That way everyone gets something and no obligations to gift the BO separately.
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Our barn usually does a group gift to our BO/trainer and his wife (BM). There’s also an assistant BM. Some years we’ve done a group gift for her as well. Some years we’ve done individual gifts (usually $$) for the assistant. The BO/trainer gifts all of the boarders, usually wearables. It works for us. There’s no set amount of $$. Just whatever people feel appropriate.
I had hoped to, as a boarder, gift my BO with a nice Haas brush this Christmas but had other ideas re: tarting up the wash stall as a gift instead. That fell apart when the BO cleaned out the wash stall herself earlier this year, so now I’m back to square one 
I keep finding things to replace stuff that’s broken around the barn (a new muck bucket, for example) but is that a terrible gift?! I see it as making little improvements to her place of business or to make her life easier (the aforementioned muck bucket is riddled with holes and must be such a PITA to dump into the wheelbarrow) and it’s something that’s practical and useful, but do other people see it that way too?
I feel like it’s leaning towards “weird” or “is there a hidden message here” rather than “thoughtful”. But I wanted to get others to weigh-in before moving on and finding something else!
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I absolutely think that tools that make her daily work easier is a great gift that gives every day of the year.
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THIS, please people, THIS. Our office staff refused to grasp this because my DH was always generous to them at Xmas time. And OMG, they’d buy him the worst crap and make him feel all confused all over again. (I mean, I think they had fun trying to keep secrets and all that, so it was probably sport as much as anything else.) But he’d give them the same lecture every year. In a business environment, giving should ONLY flow DOWN.
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People will always feel obligated to reciprocate. If he got “the worst crap” perhaps just remember the spirit of giving and what people “down” from you can afford. Donate it if it’s so awful.
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Yeah, that didn’t come out quite how it should have. Mostly it was funny, and of course he was much gentler and kinder than I was in my description. (He’s a kind person. I’m not so much which I’ve just revealed now, haven’t I?)
However, my point stands. “In a business environment, gifting should only flow down.” Those folks work hard all year (and certainly deserved their bonuses). It is a business environment, not a social one. The earth does not need the burden of misplaced social reciprocity.
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Fair enough! For some reason when I read it last night it gave me pause. I’ve always enjoyed your posts and opinions so I wondered if I was misinterpreting your point. Thank you for clarifying.
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They involved me in their plotting a couple of times (I used to work at the office so I knew them all). Which wine to buy (I don’t know the answer to that either. Luckily, one of the office gals was a better judge of wine than I am. “Ask Angela!”) One year, they wanted photos of the grandkids to make photo mugs for him. I’d always tell them what he’d tell them, but they wanted to do what they wanted to do. Wanted to buy him a briefcase one year – he has two already…No! They were good people. FInally they hit upon Xmas Treats at the office, and would bring in plates of cookies and pies and the like, and share with everybody. That was a success.
You were gentle in your correction, thank you.
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Sometimes I just do things like that at my barn. The board is fairly low for what we get - especially for me, because both of my mares are in the old foaling barn with huge stalls and a big aisle that allows me to keep big deck boxes for storage in front of both stalls. So when there was an electrical problem that would have been $$$ to fix, and really only affected the light in the tack room, I went and bought an LED shop light at CostCo and mounted it. Now we have light and they just keep that electrical circuit switched off. A couple months ago I bought mistinted paint and painted a dozen poles for the arena. When the stall cleaners don’t show up, I try to chip in and clean several stalls. It’s a small price to pay spread over the year.
For Christmas, I organized about 10 boarders to pool money and buy the BO a new set of quality saddle pads plus a SmartPak gift card, which should go to good use since she just bought a horse.
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This. I gifted the barn with a muck bucket with no holes or cracks, a scoop shovel for the aisle way, a second lunge whip, and a broom. All at different times. Mostly they were things I had around my barn that I didn’t need or were duplicates, except for the lunge whip, I bought that new.
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Same 
I’ve bought and installed hitching rings and mud grids and shelving for the wash stall … picked fields, patched slow feed haynets, and oiled squeaky gates… and I don’t mind because they take great care of my mare and charge me less than most other barns in the area would.
So, what does one gift along with a muck bucket? The bucket alone seems kinda … lonely.
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Well Bah Humbug to you!
It’s sad but necessary that it needs to be “suggested” to some wealthy horse owners that the people who break their backs taking care of Dobbin day in and day out should be recognized at Christmas. Because some people do not think to thank the lowly staff with a small token of their appreciation.
Nowhere does it say the email stated gift giving was obligatory, just suggested, which seems very reasonable to me. But honestly, what kind of person doesn’t want to give their barn workers a Christmas present?
We get an email at our barn saying that anyone who wishes to give a cash gift to the barn workers can give it to the designated gift organizer that year. The gifts are pooled and everyone who contributes signs a group card. The amount of the gift is discretionary and because they are pooled, nobody is singled out for giving more or less. Some people prefer to give their own gift, bake cookies, knit a hat, whatever, and that’s appreciated too.
The main point of those emails I think is to ensure the barn staff don’t get overlooked.
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