I've seen some interesting things regarding thank you notes lately. I'll be the first to admit that I'm not up on my Emily Post etiquette regarding thank you notes, but I think that my parents taught me pretty well in regards to them. I always wrote thank you notes to family members, friends, and others for large occasions, such as graduation from high school and college, wedding showers, weddings (yes, I have had more than one :) ), and baby showers. Although it's been quite a few years and I don't actively participate in any religious activities, I was raised as a Catholic and I'm sure that I also wrote thank you notes for my communion and confirmation.
I've recently received thank you notes from friends and family members thanking us for birthday gifts and for Christmas gifts. I can understand (to some point) writing thank you notes for birthday gifts, especially if it is a child's first birthday or a sweet 16 party and there have been a lot of guests invited to help celebrate along with many gifts. If it is just for any other birthday (not a milestone) I think a simple spoken "thank you for the gift" should suffice. On the other hand, I think that writing thank you notes for Christmas gifts is simply overkill. We have relatives who have children that we buy Christmas gifts for and friends that have children that we buy Christmas gifts for and they likewise do the same for our daughter; some of these family members and friends sent us thank you notes for their Christmas gifts. I did not write thank you notes to these friends or family members for the gifts, but they were told "thank you" by both myself and my husband. I am not sure whether or not this is a regional thing (writing thank you notes for birthday gifts and Christmas gifts) or if it is just how certain people were raised and they are continuing that with their children. I don't see anything wrong with it, I just don't plan on doing it for my child or having her do it when she is old enough to do it on her own (unless of course it's for a milestone birthday or some other significant event, as I mentioned above). A simple hug and/or kiss and a spoken "thank you" is certainly enough in my humble opinion for birthday and Christmas gifts.
Another interesting trend that I've heard about but have yet to see is going to a bridal or baby shower and having guests address their own envelopes for thank you notes to be sent from the bride and groom to be or the mother and father to be. I've read on some online message boards that people do this and turn it into a game, putting all of the pre-addressed envelopes into a box or some sort of container and drawing out envelopes to win door prizes. I think the whole idea is totally tacky. All of these people took time and effort to come to your bridal or baby shower and you can't even take some time to personally address their thank you notes for the gifts you received from them? I just don't get it. Some people have defended this new trend, stating that people may have moved and that they don't know the peoples' addresses. Whatever. We live in a very technologically oriented world, you can text, e-mail, Facebook, call a person or maybe someone else who knows the person whose address you do not know and find out. I think this new trend is just a cop out. If you're going that far, why don't you have them write their own thank you notes as well? Have them write down all the gifts they gave you and you can just sign it, put the postage on it and send it. Hell, just sign them right at the shower and tuck them in the envelopes and have your guests pick them up on the way out the door. That way you don't have to worry about them at all after the shower. Guess you can tell that I'm definitely not a fan of this new trend.
Another new thank you trend that I have heard of recently is pre-printed thank you notes that you fill in. For example, you buy a package of thank you notes and on the inside of each thank you is:
Dear ____________________,
Thank you very much for the gift(s) of ___________________________________.
I will enjoy the gift(s) very much. I plan on using this gift for_________________________.
Love,
________________________
Obviously, you get the point. Much of the work has been removed in the actual writing of the thank you note and all you have to do is fill in the blanks. Being a teacher, I know that if you create a test with fill in the blank answers it is geared toward lower level thinking. People, take the high (and less lazy) road and write your own thank you notes from beginning to end. You will be doing yourself and your children a favor by making yourself and them practice writing and (hopefully) proper English grammar and people will appreciate receiving a thank you note that is not already pre-written for them. I know that I would be pretty offended if I ever received a fill in the blank thank you note.
As a final comment, somewhat related to thank you notes, I firmly believe that hand addressing of anything demonstrates that you put time and effort into thank you notes, invitations, greeting cards, etc. I am so much more impressed when I receive any of the above that are neatly hand written or have calligraphy on them rather than having a computer printed label on them. Not that it's necessary to hand write all the time when you are addressing things, but I think it is classy.
Until next time, I remain,
Jenuinely Yours
No comments:
Post a Comment