What's the best and most appropriate Christmas present for teachers and teachers aid?

If you really feel you must get a gift, a gift certificate is nice and if you give it to a book store, the teacher can use it to buy books for the classroom if she chooses. If you give it for amazon.com, the teacher could buy books or any number of things for amazon these days sells more than books.
If you don't want the teacher to see the amount, and you really want to buy a gift, buy a pen. Over my many years of teaching I never had enough pens.
But I was as happy to have a parent send a card without a gift or send in something special for my students or make a donation to their favorite charity - I'd encourage every parent these days to know that teachers know we're all living in trying times and no one should feel obligated to buy gifts for teachers in these times.

my girls usually get little coffee mugs with candy in them are stuffed teddy bears in them,to give their teachers.they really enjoy them.one year they got their teacher a coffee set with the mugs and packs of coffee in them.this year my daughters teachers are into snow men so we got them a snow globe with snow men in them.

Ask the teacher. A great teacher will let you and other parents know at the beginning of the school year or the first week of December.

I do not give a personal gift to the teacher of my children. I do give to the teacher's classroom or charity. This gift is always based on need or requested by the teacher.

Good luck!

Sometimes the very best gift you can give your teachers and aides are helping them w/classroom projects such as decorating, cleaning up the classroom, reading the children a story or doing things to keep them busy for an hours or so to give the teacher a break to grade tests, work on teaching plan, or simply relax in his/her own enviournment so he/she can observe the students listening and interacting with a guest. Remember involve the students with activities that they will be personally involved with such as hands on projects(crafts), open discussions, etc... Use your imagination, hold the children's interest and attention and give your teacher an hour break!
Good luck