What happened to the big silver plastic key card for 18th birthdays?

[GlitterBicuits]

Does anyone else remember them? It was a cardboard box with a clear plastic front and a big silver plastic key with an 18 or 21 in the middle, usually on some silky fabric. Sometimes there was something like an artificial flower stuck on them as well.

Where have they gone?

I also had an 18th birthday glass champagne flute card from my parents next door neighbours! Same style display box

People used to write on the back of the boxes and give you these things instead of a birthday card

Does anyone remember them?
Have they died out entirely?

I think they went when large letter stamps became a thing, as all other ridiculously sized cards.

@Tempusfudgeit

I recently got my nephew a lovely, actual silver key on a red ribbon in a silk lined padded box for his 18th. I remember the tacky plastic ones!

Why though?

I don’t mean that to be snarky- I just don’t envisage that as a gift that your average 18 year old would be thrilled to receive? Especially if it was real silver, it can’t have been cheap.

I had a teddy and a champagne glass in a box.
It was off my dear dad and he wrote a lovely verse on the back of the box.

@GlitterBicuits

I'd forgotten about the plastic silver horseshoes for weddings! They had probably died out by the time I got married

We're they thought of as tacky at the time? I can't remember.
Mine were in a box for 30 years or so and then recycled.

And padded cards too, another thing I'd forgotten!

Hah you have just reminded me , I had completely forgotten. When I married Exdh his great aunt walked right in front of the photographer as he was taking the " Just walked out of the church as officially married for the first time" picture. She shouted that this was desperately important and handed me one of those plastic horseshoes. I was so confused because I had never seen them before but apparently it was an important thing.

I remember them and the 21st ones as well .
Awful things they were ,I hope they have faded into oblivion.

Haha I remember them OP, not thought about those in years.

I got one of those. The giver intended well, bless them, but I do remember wondering what on earth I was going to do with it.

What about those padded cards in boxes as well? Awful things. Made of some shiny nylon with a picture dodgily printed on it.

I had the 18th key in a box. They were usually given in addition to your regular card and gift.

Long time before that I used to love receiving floral birthday cards which smelled of flowers when you sniffed them.

Meant to add that the 18th keys came into being when the voting age was reduced from 21 to 18 in 1970.

@User27aw

My mum had some that she kept from when she was 21. She is 70 I don't remember then being a thing when i was 21, I'm 47.

I’m a year or two younger and they were around when I was a kid but I didn’t get any for my 21st or 18th.

As for the horse shoes, my dad was a farrier and my mum loved crafting so we gave no end of real horse shoes to brides.

@LittleRa

I thought they were for 21, not 18. My grandma used to sing; “Twenty-one today, she’s twenty-one today, she’s got the key to the door, never been twenty-one before…”

My grandma used to sing that too! We sang it back to her a couple of weeks ago, although for her it was 93 today... doesn’t scan quite so well

I remember her hauling out one of the plastic key monstrosities that had been given to either mum or her sister or brother... bloody tacky things they were. But given with love. Quite glad I didn’t get one though - just the song

I'm under 40 and I had one for my 18th Ans 21st.

Aghh I remember seeing these in all the card shops in the 90s. I've not seen anything like it in a long time. I never received one luckily!

I have my grandmother’s from the 1950s ... It was cardboard covered in silver foil (like old fashioned cake wrap) and handmade by her mum and the box was signed on the back by all her college friends . Quite sweet - though I agree the modern ones are tacky . Mum has a 21st key and I have an eighteenth so they’ve been stuck in the same box as my gran’s 18th and 21st ones .

I remember them and also the huge cards with please Mr postman do not bend written on the envelope. 😂

You can still get them in the Card Factory! And the horseshoe for weddings! You can't beat a bit of cheese.

Mine went to landfill when I cleared out my parents house, together with decorations from their wedding cake and my christening cake.

Our neighbour gave a glass and key set to my 18 year old DD last year! She was shockingly,(she can't be mine) pleased with it!

Were they superseded by the cards that are hilariously specific about the relationship between giver and receiver? My favourite of those are the ones “to our beloved son and his partner”... on the surface they’re really thoughtful and inclusive, but we know what the underlying message is 😂

I loved them when I was a kid. Can't remember if I got one when I was 18. Think they were out of fashion by then.

I remember them only too well. My mum has still got all mine and my brother's - God knows why! I think they still do that sort of thing in Card Factory. And yes, I got the horseshoes when I got married although they did go by the wayside when we were clearing out before we moved.

He's not your average 18 year old! He loved it 😀

Tacky as.