Holidays are the time I feel best about tipping. When I first moved to my local area for school, I had no family and no place to really go for thanksgiving. And really no place was open (what with it being a holiday and all). The one exception was a local diner that's open 24/7/365. As a broke college student in a new town, that diner was my go to spot for that first thanksgiving and many a holiday after when everything else was closed and I had no where to go.

Since those days, even though I have family and friends to have holiday meals with, I've made it a point every year to have a small meal at the diner even if it's just coffee and a desert. And since I'm doing much better these days than a poor broke college student, I do it because I want to leave a large tip for the staff. No big Oprah style "you get at tip and you get a tip" performance or videos for youtube, just a simple card and big tip expressing my gratitude for them being there those years ago for past me, and for being around today for all the people who don't have anywhere to go still.

Whether they consider themselves exploited or not. Whether they're there because they need the work and the money, or (like I often did when I worked retail) they volunteered for the holiday shift because they had no where to be that day either. In either case, I was and remain grateful and the holidays are the one time a year I truly enjoy giving a tip.