Tiffany LeAnn Clay earns $30 in tips in a typical lunch hour shift, setting steaks in front of hungry customers at The Great 611 Steak Company in Roanoke.

But this month, the indulgence is all hers.

Her daily tips will grow to $45 to $50 as many customers leave a few extra dollars as a sort of hand-given Christmas present.

Clay, a waitress for 13 years, keeps the money in her apron until she gets home. When she spills the bounty out, a sum that often exceeds a day's paycheck income, it opens up possibilities for her and her children.

"It helps to where I could give my kids a good Christmas," said Clay, 36, who has a boy, Duane, 8, and a girl, Elizabeth, 10.

In addition to waitresses, hair stylists score holiday dividends in the form of oversized yuletide tips. So do valet parking attendants, maids, child-care attendants and various other service industry workers.

It seems that many people give away at least a few extra dollars at this time of year, in spite of advice that consumers should spend carefully around the holidays.

"Americans might enjoy giving holiday tips almost as much as getting them," said a Consumer Reports item on holiday tipping in the December issue.

Justin Marshall is that kind of American, it would appear. A 24-year-old valet manager at Hotel Roanoke, he earns tips and a paycheck by parking and retrieving vehicles for visiting guests -- and tips are up a few bucks this month.

But when he is off duty and has occasion to tip somebody else, he tips big. Year-round.

He said he left about a $12 tip for a $30 meal for two at Awful Arthur's recently. Five bucks would have covered the 15 percent gratuity that is the custom of the day for restaurant table service. He left 40 percent.

"You treat others how you want to be treated," Marshall said.

Just the other day, tips starting rising for Supercuts employees, including Diane Glenn, a hair stylist and operations manager at the company's Salem store. After she gives a $13.95 haircut, the customer usually tacks on $2 to $5.

This month, she has received "a lot of $5 tips," she said. "I had a couple of $10 tips this week."

Bob Widner, who drives unit No. 29 for Yellow Cab in the Roanoke Valley, notices the custom, too. He said that, most of the year, riders leave him "whatever loose change" they have in their pockets or purses. During the holidays, he receives ample tips of $5 or $7, but not from everyone.

Sonia Poling, a nail technician at Cypress Hill Natural Nail Spa in Roanoke, said the custom warms her heart, regardless of what form her customers' tokens of holiday cheer take -- a gift or cash.

"It's the fact that they thought about you while they were gone," she said.

Another industry that cleans up is house cleaning. For a crew of two, "it's not unusual for them to get a $100 tip around the holidays," said Chelsea Hale, supervisor in the Roanoke office of Molly Maids. Customers tuck it in with the usual payment for services and leave it on the counter or send the payments by mail.

Tales like these, as heartwarming as they are, fall flat for those service workers who are not routinely tipped at any time of the year.

Their angst is understandable. What's the difference in hand labor, say, between the service of Molly Maids and that of a lawn crew or an auto mechanic?

But the untipped seem resigned to their status, pleased to at least receive their sometimes considerable fee for service.

"People don't really tip. They pay the bill and that's it," said Darrell Booth, a member of the family that runs Wayne's Imported Automotive in Roanoke. "We did have a customer who once gave us Dom Perignon at Christmas. Six bottles of it. I guess you could call that a tip."