I remember my mom being very strict about thank you notes as I was growing up. She insisted that everyone who sent a gift or did something very nice got a handwritten thank you note directly from me.

I was pretty spoiled, with a plentitude of grandparents, aunts and uncles and friends that showered me at Christmas, Birthday and graduation times. And I diligently, if not un-complainingly, wrote thank you notes to each of them. I’m sure my mom had to do a lot of the work (buy, address and stamp the cards) and that I was not always pleasant as I sat down to write them.

I will be forever grateful to my mother for teaching me that lesson. Gratitude is a wonderful thing. It makes the giver feel appreciated and the receiver reflects on both the gift and the giver, even if it’s only for the short time it takes to write the note.

I started very young with my son - having him “write” with a crayon on notes that I send on his behalf. We will soon progress to including a picture drawn by him, then he will sign him name, and finally write the note himself. We live far from many family and friends and he is also lucky enough to be regularly spoiled by mail. And I won’t let him ever think that he “deserves” this treatment.

Gifts are special treats and generous expressions of a person’s feelings for you (or should be) and should be appreciated as such. If someone goes through all the effort to remember you, shop for you, wrap it up and send it, the least you can do is write a dern Thank You Note!

*And to those that might need still more motivation, know that I have been rewarded with more presents for longer periods of time than those that didn’t respond to the giver. My mother, she of the big lesson, once even rewarded someone with an additional check just because they impressed her with their Thank You Note!

~M

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