Personally, I have never done this in 37 years of my life. I have never really heard of it. There are so many presents going around. Now I hear people are doing this. Chron.com says you should teach your kids to do this. That is news to me. I don't really like it either. I don't want letters for giving a Xmas gift.
I used to as a kid, only because my parents made me. Since I'm no longer under their jurisdiction, I just make sure I call people and say "thank you so much for the _____ - I really appreciate it, it's awesome!" I'm too lazy to write.
If it's from someone from out of town who didn't give it to me in person (ie. someone who isn't obligated to give me anything, but did anyway), I think it's a nice gesture.
i agree, totally unneccessary. this surprised me on chron.com too since i never even heard of it before. since i've written 113 thank you cards (for the wedding gifts) and 18 christmas cards in the last 5 weeks....NO THANK YOU to writing x-mas thank you cards.
I already had to talk my wife out of not doing thank you cards for our son's birthday. Do we really have to do it every time someone gives you a gift? Weddings, births, and maybe Bar/Bat Mitzvah's are it.
I'm sort of with y'all about not doing it, but my mother always taught us to do it as kids, and it's sort of expected in my family . . . I'm usually bad about it (send them like 2 months late, after my grandparents have been like "did you get such and such? I never got a card so I didn't know"), but I try to get around to it eventually
Its idiotic. The act of gift giving should be done based purely on joy, happiness and generosity. To expect a thank you card is to completely forget about why you're giving the gift in the first place. A verbal thank you of course is different...but a written one is totally unnecessary...even if they are from out of town I don't think it's needed (unless say its from a grandparent or it's a HUGE gift). I don't care for the whole idea (not just christmas, but birthdays, baby showers and even weddings)...but I did do it for the baby shower and for the wedding because that is definitely customary. I've never heard about doing it for Christmas and even birthdays...is it so hard to just assume they appreciate the gift, or at least the thoughtfulness of it? I got a thank you card from my cousin's wedding 4 months after the fact...I just assumed they were too busy and just figured they liked the gift; wasn't a big deal to me if I didn't get a thank you or not. I'll also add that I don't care for feeling like you HAVE to get a gift for everyone just because they're giving one to you. Why can't we just get a gift for our family and close friends and then anyone else you WANT to get a gift for and to not expect anything in return?
