Huckleberries Online

Cis: Thank You Notes?

Posted by DFO

Dec. 21, 2009 5:58 p.m. • 6 comments

When you are given a gift, do you write a thank you note? Do you call instead? Or do you sit down and write out a thank you note and mail it? Or being we are more into internet, do you sent an email? Or is just saying thank you, at the time the gift is given to you, enough? The Emily Post correctness is you write a note of thanks. Not just a card, but to actually write a note of thanks andhow much you appreciate it. She would never go for the email thank you note. I know I was required, even as a small child, to write a note of thanks. I also trained my children to write a note of thanks when it was a gift sent to them. If they were hand given, then I let them off with just saying thank you. Which they usually did on their own/Cis, From A Simple Mind. More here.

Question: How do you say thanks for a gift?

Six comments on this post so far. Add yours!

Cindy_H on December 21 at 7:03 p.m.
Not complicated. When receiving a gift in person, a verbal thanks should suffice. (If you want to want to encourage further gifts or were blown away by the giver’s thoughtfulness, a written note is never wrong).
When receiving a gift through the mail, or a gift not opened in the precense of the giver, a written note whether e-mailed or snail-mailed is correct.
MusicalChair on December 21 at 8:44 p.m.
What Cindy said.
hhuseland on December 21 at 9:10 p.m.
I, having shared a generation with Cis, can understand her point, yet communications have evolved over the years. Most people don’t use snail mail for notes to friends, they use the internet. some uses thereof, are a mystery to me. Just this last week I got invitations to join groups like”say no,” without any explanation as to what the membership stood for. There have been others. If any of you invite me to an unexplainable site with no explanation, do not expect me to join. I liberally use the delete button even if a friend is the requester. Sometimes face book wants to know just a little more about me than I am willing to share. There, in most cases, is no justification for the requests, unless face book is selling this stuff to others. Scare you? It damn well should.
mia on December 21 at 11:24 p.m.
I too am with Cindy. I might add, that when you are invited out for a gathering, it is nice to send the host/hostess a thank you as well. I think writing thank you notes has become a lost art. That makes me sad.
sue on December 22 at 5:59 a.m.
I like to give and receive thank-you notes, although I don’t keep track of who does or doesn’t send one. I have to mildly disagree w/ Cindy. Even if you say thanks in person, a follow-up note is always good etiquette. I have sent thank-yous via e-mail for small gifts or small kindnesses. My daughter-in-law writes the best thank-yous, and is teaching my grandchildren to do that, too. I like that.
TLPoelstra on December 22 at 6:56 a.m.
Its a generational thing…Older than me, send a note. Same generation as me, give a call. Younger than me, send an email or text. The most important thing is to say thank you! Being able to be a gracious receiver has become a lost art.

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D.F. Oliveria is a columnist and blogger for The Spokesman-Review. Huckleberries Online was judged the best 2008 Idaho newspaper blog by the Idaho Press Club. And the best 2007 news blog in the Pacific Northwest by the Society for Professional Journalist. Print Huckleberries is a past winner of the Herb Caen Memorial Column contest by the National Association of Newspaper Columnists. The Readership Institute of Northwestern University cited this blog as a good example of online community journalism.