Who says Christmas, says New Years! It’s at this time of year that you give a little nest egg to your building caretaker, your cleaning lady or even your postman. Michel, who worked for 20 years for La Poste, tells us what it was like before…
Will inflation, the stagnation of wages and the multiplication of taxes on everything and anything have the skin of the New Year at the end of the year 2025? This tradition, very anchored in our country but which only relies on the goodwill of people, always brings a little balm to the heart to those who receive a few euros or gifts. Michel, a postman for 20 years, shares his memories on the subject.
By bike, in all seasons, Michel had to travel across a large area of a town near Paris, between the 1980s and the early 2000s, to deliver mail. “I had up to 400 addresses in my perimeter“, he remembers. And, when the end of the year approached, after his traditional distribution of mail, he left in the evening with calendars under his arm – we have all known the famous calendars with images of little cats or puppies in a wicker basket – to knock on residents’ doors. Because, although the practice does not have a legal framework, postmen are generally authorized by the co-owners to enter the buildings.
Conversely, firefighters must request authorization from the prefect or mayor and garbage collectors, generally municipal employees or by private companies, are often prohibited from such an approach by cities as is the case for example in Paris or Lyon. “I had about 200 people give me gifts some years. People always gave even if little by little there were fewer people giving“, specifies our former postman. If some were content to pay the equivalent of 3 or 4 euros for a calendar, some residents gave much more. “One year, I was able to buy a HiFi system with my gifts“, assures Michel.
Today, if the goalkeeper remains the one who generally receives the most money at the end of the year, the postman is not doing so badly either, as BFMTV points out. “The postmen distribute 8 to 10 million copies of their calendar each year for a total financial windfall estimated at nearly 100 million euros.“, assures the site, which specifies that each postman receives between 5 and 10 euros per inhabitant encountered. Please note, however, that your gifts, unlike donations to associations, are not tax deductible. If you give the coin to the postman or the guard, it is only for the beauty of the gesture and in gratitude for the services rendered during the year.
