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Feeling more generous about tips this holiday season? You’re not alone.

Despite gripes about the near-constant requests for tips in retail and services, Bankrate says more people are planning to give holiday tips this year than last.

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More than 50% of Bankrate survey respondents say they plan to tip or give gifts to their child care providers.
More than 50% of Bankrate survey respondents say they plan to tip or give gifts to their child care providers.
Toni L. Sandys/The Washington Post via Getty Images

It is the time of year: for holiday tipping. A new survey from Bankrate finds that more people are planning to tip regular service providers this holiday season than in recent years.

More than 50% of respondents said they plan to tip or give gifts to housekeepers and child care providers, and many also plan to tip gardeners, mail carriers and trash collectors.

Tipping has become more fraught for many of us these days. Almost every time you go to buy something in a store, it now feels like there’s a prompt to tip.

“I was asked to tip at a self checkout at Newark Airport, and I was asked to tip at a pick your own strawberry farm,” said Ted Rossman, a senior industry analyst at Bankrate.

That’s caused something of a backlash against tipping, he said. “Around the holidays, though, people are feeling better. I mean, some of it is that holiday spirit, right? People are feeling more generous.”

Some of that has to do with personal relationships and the connection people feel to those providing a regular service.

For most people, “quality of service is like the major factor in deciding whether to tip,” explained Drew DeSilver at the Pew Research Center. “And that might be something you’re also thinking about over the holidays, because you’re thinking about the people who provide you services over the year.”

Most of the year, Bankrate’s Rossman said that fewer people are tipping for all kinds of services — “at restaurants and hair salons, and for taxis and ride shares.”

But holiday tips for nannies, housekeepers and supers are holding steady.

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