Do You Make Your DCs Write Thank You Notes??

[DeckthehallswithboughsofhollyL]

Ever since DD's first Christmas, we have made thank you notes/cards for everybody that has given her something for Christmas. The first year were cards with her baby hand prints on, the second year, after the cards took so long, I cheated and typed a standard note on the pc and again, she stuck her handprints all over them and this year, she will 'write' her name on her thank you notes.

I've just always seen this as polite, plus I copied it from my aunt and uncle who have done this with my cousins from their first Christmas. They are 16 and 18 now and we still receive thank you notes from them.

What do you do?

no, just a quick phone call or email usually and that's only if they weren't there when the present was opened and could be thanked at the time.

My mum still makes me and im 20 and married living in my own home. But I think its nice. Its when you send a present, and don't get a small note back you realise how nice a small gesture is like that. I shall be bullying my children to do the same

I always write thank you cards. DS wrote 'wrote' some this year for his 1st birthday (so he scribbled with a crayon over what I wrote). I think if people have bothered to buy something for him, it is nice to thank them. tbh I assumed everyone sent them...

NO - we have phones these days doncha know

I agree with custardo.

Yes, DD will do thank you letters after Christmas, and she does after her birthdays too. We also phone.

Getting no acknowledgement at all isn't polite though. In the past O have sent cards with monmey or vouchers, or sometimes small presents - and I wouldn't even know if they have arrived as no letter or call to say so. That annoys me.

no as they find it such a chore so just ring up

I type it in coloured hand writing type font in word as if ds was saying it and ds (5) now writes the dear.... at the top and love..... at the bottom

Letters to anyone that we don't phone on Christmas Day - plus grandparents usually get a note anyway.
But I don't make them do it by hand - even when they were tiny I used to get them to dictate to me what they wanted to say and I typed it on the computer. Then they would add some littl drawings of something they thought the person would like.
Now that they're older they do their own letters on the computer but personalised to each giver and with some appropriate clipart for each person

Yes I do - I think it is polite and expected and a small thing to do in return for the thought that has been put into their present.

I will be making cards with my girls I think its polite and shows the gift was appreciated

I always send a thank you note from them for gifts. I'm with Hula... We always send gifts/cards/money to my cousins and they don't even acknowledge whether they have received them or not which really p's me off!

Yes always, its a very good habit to teach them. I usually have her clolr a picture because she can't spell or write but she does know its a way of saying thank you.

yes, yes yes, hate people who don't even bverbally thank you.

Yes, always, though I usually lose the list I've made and spend the next three days muttering "Uncle John...er..er" to myself!!

Otherwise people may not even know you've got the gift at all, and they have taken the trouble to buy it etc, We don't do them for grandparents tho.

Yes, i try to. I have a terrible memory so I find this hard but I write down what they got from who. Once the dust has settled after the festivities I get them to write a little note to the people they haven't seen. FIL prints off pictures for them to put in with the notes. Now they are older it is more of a letter and they say wha else they have been doing. 7 and 10yrs.

Yes I insist my dds do them - the way I present it to them: if someone has gone to the trouble of thinking of you, going to the shop, choosing a present, bringing it home, wrapping it up then sending it through the post to you (we live miles from all our rellies except my parents) - then ten minutes spent writing a thank you note is a small return. They do it with (fairly) good grace now!

The reason for a note rather than a phonecall is that we can do them all in one (or two) goes rather than keep trying to contact someone who is always out, plus (particularly for the older generation) it's something nice to keep. As the advert used to say, "you can't tie a ribbon round a phonecall".

You can buy great thank you cards from Phoenix traders - they are basically tick-box quiz-like things, so it goes:

Thanks for the present

I have:

a) eaten it already
b) stored it away to be treasured forever
c) put it in the bank

That's not a real example, they're funnier than that. Anyway, the point is, they're fun to fill in and only take a couple of seconds, so they can do them all in about three minutes. Fine for most people; maybe not the really aged rellies.

I try to make it fun and DD's likes to do little cards with stickers and all sorts. DS like to do a more traditional letter but illistrates the letters with fantasic cartoon pics.

yes

Yes, we do one thank-you card from all 3 DCs. They draw/paint/stick etc and DD1 writes her name on. I will encourage them to write their own thank-you's as soon as they're able to. It's awfully rude not to!

Yes, always. I write them for the DD's but DD1 is now old enough to sign her name and DD2 can do a scribble. Sometimes we do pictures for the sender of the present, sometimes we send photos.

I send birthday and christmas presents to my goddaughter (aged 5) and never hear a thing back. I know it's not her fault but as people have said below, most people put a lot of thought and effort into getting something that they think the child will like and if you don't even know if they've received the presents, year in and year out, then I think it's too much of a one way system and it makes me want to not bother (even though I still do).