How do you say thank you?

Christmas has been and gone, went quickly didn’t it?

You are no doubt trying to find homes for all the new things and if you didn’t get around to it before, you are probably in need of a clear out or at least some reorganisation.

January is also a time for lots of thank yous. I remember as a child always getting a new stationary set for Christmas for me to write all my thank you letters on. At times this seemed like so much effort and wasn’t always something that filled me with excitement. However, it taught me the importance of being grateful and reminded me how lucky I was.

Saying thank you is obviously important but going to a bit more effort than that is something I have consciously tried to instill in my children.

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We’ve used all sorts of approaches over the years depending on the age of the children at the time and often we’ve used several in a year, here are a few examples:

  • Painted hand and foot prints of the children made into cards
  • A photo of the children holding a sign saying “thank you”
  • A photo card
  • A picture drawn by the the children
  • A letter written by the children
  • A handmade card
  • A bought card written by the children
  • An electronic card
  • A drawing scanned and emailed
  • Photos of the children using their gifts

Of course you can phone, text and email as well but we have often done that as well.

Do you encourage your children to write or draw thank you letters and cards? What is your approach?

Mr and Mrs T Plus Three
Mummascribbles

12 comments

  1. I too think it’s important to teach your children to be grateful and have always sent out handwritten cards. My favourite was probably a photograph of my little girl on the beach with ‘Thank you’ written into the sand. This year I have to admit that I wrote all of the cards – with my eldest still only being 5 I feared she may come to loathe writing if I asked her to write about 30 cards! I did send one as an email as I wanted to send some photos of the children which I knew the recipient would appreciate and as I hadn’t got round to printing them out to send, I didn’t want to leave it any longer before acknowledging their gift.
    Some lovely ideas above though which I shall take inspiration on for the future – thank you!

    1. I love the sand idea – that’s really different! It can be quite daunting for them and for us trying to find the time to address and send all the thank yous as well … 30 is a lot ! x

  2. I’ve been thinking about this lately (although my little boy is only one!) I think the sentiment of saying thank you is important but obviously he won’t be able to write notes until he’s a fair bit older, so these ideas are great, thanks so much!

  3. These are great ideas. I’ve written them for my children this year as they are still young, but hopefully the older one will be able to help next year! We put photos in them too as most of them were to relatives that we don’t see very often. #thelist

  4. Oscar’s too young to really understand the writing of cards as a way of thanking someone (he did it all in person over Christmas anyway) but I insist on sending a thank you every year. This year we had personalised cards made by a lady I found on IG. I have also previously made my own with handprints etc. I look forward to the day he can/wants to get involved. #twinklytuesday

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