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New York has a lot of traditions - some are fun, some are a pain, and some are just hard to keep track of. I would file the customary holiday season tipping of building staff under that third category. For people in swanky apartments with doormen and highly responsive landlords it makes sense, but for those of us who can't get our super to reply to a text unless the building is actively on fire, it can seem a little extra, or at the very least confusing.
Fortunately for all of us, Brick Underground has updated their guide to holiday season tipping in New York with a bunch of helpful information, including the results of a poll asking real people how much they tip the people they see every day (or every other month, depending). Admittedly the suggested numbers are on the high end of things, but it's still useful data to have when determining how much - or whether - you're expected to tip.
According to Brick Underground, most supers or resident managers are tipped $75-175, though some as much as $500. Doormen are in the $25-150 range, and garage attendants (oh, to have a garage attendant) should receive somewhere between $15 and $100. If these numbers seem weirdly specific, don't worry: reasonable people can disagree.
Emily Post, for example, notes first of all that your holiday tipping (which the site calls, cloyingly, "holiday thanking") should be based primarily on what you can afford. That makes sense! Both sites get into the nitty gritty details of who should get how much, why, and when, but I think the general point is that a gesture of thanks, no matter the size, is a nice thing to do at this time of year.