Topping-out ceremony: Gifts for the craftsmen?

I would also forgo money - building is expensive enough. Invite the people for food/drinks and that's it.

Craftsmen are usually (if local) not on site for long anyway - for them, it is not as special as it is for us builders.

I have found that you should somewhat coax the people beforehand (snacks, drinks), then they usually work better. If I give tips - if at all - I give them quite early before the work ends. The craftsmen usually stay longer than they have to and put in more effort.

After our topping-out ceremony, I learned that it is customary to give 20/30€ as a thank you for the topping-out speech. The carpenters stay longer than they actually work, so it’s their free time. Otherwise, you have no connection to them. They also didn’t stay for a meal with us; you couldn’t really treat them either, since they were only there for one day and left promptly. As I said: they didn’t get anything from us either.

How is it even like... Do you show up on the construction site daily and bring snacks for the workers? I have no idea about that... Still in planning...

As you can and want, I think. They are all people and will surely be happy about something to drink and a soup (cannot hurt to inform them beforehand, otherwise they might bring their own food) - they will not expect it.

We always had sweets on the construction site. There was no topping-out ceremony, but it was also in winter.

The most important thing nowadays is drinks - preferably isotonic stuff, water, and apple spritzer in 0.5 liter bottles. We put a fridge there that was always well stocked. It cost little and people were very grateful. I know from conversations with many craftsmen that this is now rarely done anymore.