I have been a server for over two years now and I have worked during Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's Eve. Serving is a great job for anyone to have. It teaches patience and you learn great customer service skills which can be beneficial to you for future jobs.

One of the biggest things that I have learned about serving during the holidays is that business slows down a lot. There are couple reasons as to why this happens. One reason is because people are trying to save their money for gifts, vacations and other things to spend their money on during the holidays. I understand this completely because around this time of year, I try my best to not eat out as much and save my money as well.

Another thing I have learned during these past two years is that most people do not tip well/accordingly during this time. It is hard to feel okay with this because people who serve also have families to buy gifts for and serving may be their only way of income. As most people know, tips are basically a servers only income so we really do work for our money. The bad part about that is- no matter how hard you work and how good you treat your customers, they're only going to tip you as much as they can afford or want to tip you.

Patience is a huge thing you need to have while you're in the service industry and during the holidays, servers really need to show that they have this trait. People seem to be more stressed out during this time (some with good reason) and they take that out on their waiters/waitresses. I am not saying this is fair to servers but it is something that we have to be prepared for.

Servers have to deal with a lot during the holidays like making less money and having to deal with stressed out customers. People should keep this in mind when they go out to eat during Christmas and Thanksgiving. You may not know it, but being kind to your server goes a really long way with them and could actually make their their whole night!