Thursday, December 13, 2012

Thank You Notes: A Lost Art Form?



Yesterday in the mail I received a thank you from my cousin. Had I given her a present? Had I done something extra special for her? Nope. I had simply invited her to a party that I had. She came and had a great time and wanted to thank me for extending the invite. It was a nice note that absolutely did not have to be written (and mailed) but it was so nice to receive.

It reminded me how my husband and I recently had one of our repeat conversations about how he thinks my family is crazy about thank you cards. He said he’s never heard of people who write as many thank yous as we do. The older I get the more I realize that we might be a bit crazy about it. After all, by far the majority of thank yous I receive are indeed from my own family. However, it’s a kind of crazy that I want to be. It takes so little to say thank you and really only a bit more effort to write it. My mother raised me to write thank you notes for everything. After every holiday, birthday, event, etc. I can remember sitting at the table with her writing out thank you cards. It was just what we did.

I am now doing my best to raise the next generation of thankers. Every time my children receive gifts I make them write thank you notes. Obviously, they are small so we tweak the thank you accordingly. Isabelle and Henry dictate the message to me and I write it for them. They then color a picture or design on each letter. Daniel also scribbles his own personalization on his thank yous. I feel that it’s really important for them to add a personal touch to it. Beyond the whole obvious reason that someone did something nice for us and we want to acknowledge it, it’s rare to get regular mail that isn’t bills so a handwritten thank you goes a long way. So yeah, I guess I am crazy about thank you notes. I can only hope that when my kids are grown that they are crazy for thanks yous, too.
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