Thank You Cards--How to Write them

"Mommy, what are you doing?," I said (as a small child) "I am writing thank you notes for gifts given to you for your birthday," my mother answered.

My mom taught me many lessons and the dialogue that I just wrote occurred between my mother and I, when I was a little girl. As far back as I can remember, my mother taught me it was polite and courteous by writing a thank you note if someone gave me or did something nice for me.

As a child (once I was old enough to write for myself), I wrote thank you notes for my birthdays, Christmases, events, such as my communion, my confirmation, and even my sweet 16. As an adult, I penned thank you cards for our engagement, my bridal shower, and our wedding. As a mother, I also wrote thank you notes for my baby shower, the births of my kids, their christenings, their 1st birthdays and also now their subsequent birthdays. I even wrote thank you notes to my doctor after helping deliver both of my children safely into this world. Quite simply, thank you notes for me have always just been the polite and considerate thing to do as my mother taught me from the beginning.

So, what actually made me think of this topic? Yesterday, I was writing thank you cards for my daughter's 3rd birthday, which we celebrated earlier in the week to family and friends who were kind enough to come to her party and generous enough to buy her a gift. The thought crossed my mind as I wrote these notes, "How many times in my life have I written a thank you to someone for being so thoughtful to me or my family?". And this is where this article actually began and took on a life of its own.

More times than I can count, i have written thank you notes. If you look at my first paragraph alone, one can clearly see I have written my fair share of thank you notes. Even for the most mundane things i have written or even just said thank you to others. One such example that comes to mind is as follows: Even after writing and publishing an article on Hubpages, when someone comments I feel it is only fitting to write and thank this person for their kindness. Hey it might not be a formal, thank you card, but it is still the act of saying 'thank you' to another who has shown kindness to you.

So when writing an actual thank you card, how does one go about writing them? Here are some pointers for what to do, when composing a thank you note.

Always do try to send your thank you cards out as quickly as possible. My rule of thumb is it should be no more than a month after the event took place. My husband and I went to a few weddings over the course of our time together and we actually have received quite a few thank you cards from these events, but the ones I do remember believe it or not are the ones that took forever to get. Two of the weddings we went to, the thank you cards took almost a year to get in the mail. I will be honest and tell you I think that is not only rude, but there is no reason why a thank you card should take that long to pen and mail out. Seriously, if it is that long, one wonders why even bother. Sorry, but that is just my humble opinion. Therefore, please do try to send out your thank you cards as quickly and as prompt as possible.

I always try to write who gave what as the package is being opened or very shortly there after. You don't even need a separate piece of paper, you can write it right on the card that was given with the gift. Even if you are too busy, such as a bridal shower, you can always ask for someone's help and designate them to to this for you. This will truly help when you do write the thank you note. And you will see this further when looking at the next point coming up.

When writing the thank you note, make specific references to the actual gift that the person/s gave, because that puts a personal touch on the thank you. For example, if someone gave you a pink blouse, you can say something like, "Thank you so much for the pink blouse. I love it and how did you know that pink is my favorite color?" This sounds so much better than, "Thanks so much for your gift," because here there is no mention as to what was given. This goes nicely by the way again with point #2 and illustrates why you should write down a list of who gifted what.

The following are times, when you should definitely write a thank you. I know I stated some of these earlier, but am putting them here in a more concise format. These times are as follows:

• Birthdays
• Religious events (Communion, Bar Mitzvah, etc)
• Wedding gifts, Bridal or Baby Shower, Birth of a Baby.
• For sympathy letters, flowers, or mass cards.
• For gifts that were received by mail and you can't say thank you to their face.

That same conversation that opened up this article with actually occurred yesterday by the way with my 3 year old daughter when I was writing her thank you cards. She was curious as to what I was doing with her birthday cards and why I was writing in a card with her picture on it. Emma said to me, "Mommy what are you doing with my birthday cards and why are you writing in those little cards with my picture on it?" My response was simple and as follows, "Emma, mommy is writing thank you notes in those cards with your picture on it to all your family and friends who were kind enough to either come to your party or send you a present in the mail, because all those people were thoughtful enough to remember you and do something to make you happy." By the way, someday soon when you can write yourself, you will write thank you cards too and teach your little girl or boy someday this same lesson."

And guess what, time does march on, because I was taught this lesson as I told you as a child and now I find myself teaching it to my own child. It is a lesson that transcends time. Quite simply, I want my children to grow up with manners and be courteous and polite to others. Isn't that an important and valuable message to teach our youth? I think so and that is exactly why I am writing this one to not only educate my own children, but to help teach others who may need some help on this topic as well. In the end, what matters most is to remember that a simple "Thank you" goes a long way and will most likely brighten another's day. So why not try it out yourself to brighten that special someone's day today.

This article is dedicated to all the mothers out there, specifically my mother, who taught me from as far back as I can remember the importance of two simple words, "Thank You". Mom, I love you and now it is time for me to say thank you to you for all you have taught me and done for me over the years!!!