We’ve made it through to the last day of our ten-day challenge! I hope you found some of these challenges useful or interesting or helpful. After today we’ll be back to our regularly-scheduled programming.
This last challenge is dedicated to holiday thanks. It’s very easy in this busy time to forget to properly thank those who are generous to us. As I have said before, much of making letter writing easy is having some systems in place to create an environment that encourages jotting a note here and there.
For your holiday unwrapping, you use the standard trick that people use at bridal and baby showers. Have a designated note taker to record the gifts as they are unwrapped. Jot down the name of the person giving the gift, who it was given to and what the gift is. Add to the list all the money you received from cards that came before Christmas as well.
With this information you can quickly compile your thank you notes. Here is a very easy formula for building a thank you note. Modify this as needed:
Dear [Giver],
Thank you so much for the [name of gift]. I really love it. [insert one sentence to indicate how you'll use it or why you love it]. I appreciate your thoughtfulness and generosity.
Happy Holidays (or whatever expression you like here),
your signature
Here is why I recommend doing thank you notes this way. First of all, putting in the actual name of the gift and what you like about it personalizes the note so people don’t think you’re just sending the same canned message to everyone. Second it makes it look like you’ve taken time to actually think about the gift. You’re completing the circle of giving. You give a gift to me (an act of generosity) and I give something back to you (an act of sincere gratitude). It’s a closed circuit that leaves everyone feeling good about the interaction. Have you ever gotten a great gift that you didn’t write a thank you note for? I think it makes people feel a little crummy on the inside, so don’t let that happen to you!
Now for the big Christmas quandary. How do you thank someone for a gift you don’t really like? No problem. The thing about gifts is you’re thanking the person for their thoughtfulness, not so much for the item. So you can say, “thank you so much for the purple sweatshirt that’s two sizes too big and has battery-powered talking dinosaurs on the front that makes my hooters look twelve sizes larger than they actually are. It makes me so happy to know you were thinking of me.” Don’t ever, ever, ever say you love something if you don’t, but DO express how you feel about the person caring enough to buy or make you a gift.
Try to get your thank you notes out by the end of the year, but remember… it’s never too late to say thanks. Better late than never.
Tags: challenge, Etiquette, holiday mail, thank you notes, thanks
