BENCH

Gifts for a Chessed Girl or Helper

Thank the girl who has been helping in your house — babysitting, cooking, or holding the family together for a week.

About Gifts for a Chessed Girl or Helper

A chessed girl is the seminary student or neighbour's daughter who has been coming three afternoons a week to hold the baby, cook supper or take the children to the park. She is usually not being paid properly, is usually far from her own family, and is almost never thanked in a way she can show anyone.

So the gift is small and personal rather than large: chocolate, a nosh box, a cake, flowers. If she is a seminary girl living in a dorm, food that needs no kitchen is the version that actually gets used. Add a card naming what she did — for someone who has spent a month being useful in the background, that is the part that counts.

What people usually send

  • A chocolate or nosh box she can keep in a dorm
  • A cake or decorated cookies with her name
  • Flowers, sent to the house she is staying in
  • A gift box for the end of the year