Do people not send thank you cards anymore?

[CJK]

In the last couple of years, I've noticed on several occasions that people haven't sent thank you cards, where I would have expected it. Are thank you cards for wedding gifts or baby gifts a thing of the past? I mailed 2 baby gifts in the last 2yrs, and I never received a thank you card. In those cases, I was worried that the gifts were never received. I sent a follow-up email one time (about 3 months later), and the person wrote back saying, "thanks for the gift" and that was the only mention of it.

It's not that I'm looking for a big pat on the back or anything, I'm just wondering if this is the new trend. Maybe I missed the memo, and thank you cards are now a thing of the past. Anyone else notice this too?

 

[Buckalew11]

I just sent over 40 Thank you notes for Christmas gifts.Some people do and some don't. My niece (by marriage) is in her early 20's, in dental school and has 2 little ones--she always sends thank you notes. I am not sure where she finds the time but she finds it!

 

[RadioFanatic]

I agree people don't send them anymore - my sister and cousin for two. And with my cousin, I don't even know if they got them or not!

OTOH, I always send them.

 

[DisneyScraps]

Unfortunately it's dying. I can't tell you the last time I received a thank you card from someone. I gift birthday gifts, baby etc. I was super ticked about the gift I gave the director of my DD's school. It was a Harry and David treat tower. She never even SAID thank you, forget a card!

My DD writes them. I don't have her do it for Christmas because it's all family that are there to see her open the gifts but anything else gets a thank you card!

Lisa

 

[moburg]

Guilty! Sometimes... We try to send thank you cards, but sometimes it falls through the cracks. We're still talking about sending Christmas Thank-You's, so maybe it will still happen.

 

[Buckalew11]

I sent a care package to my niece at college in PA in November and got a Thank you note from her too. I was completely surprised. She sent me a note on FB and then I also got a card by snail mail.

 

[Handbag Lady]

I send thank you notes when appropriate.


I don't send them for Christmas presents, because in my family, we are together at Christmas and not only do we have a two-hour OPENING OF THE PRESENTS event, we also then look over what we got and share our new candy and talk about where we will spend the gift cards and try on new clothes for sizes and tastes and all that jazz. And then there are the pictures. Like my dad wearing his new Corvette shirt, new leather jacket with a Santa hat and a giant blob of peanut brittle sticking out from his mouth.

I do think a notch less of people who can't send thank yous for weddings and baby showers and such. There isn't time at events to properly thank someone.

 

[LaurenLC]

We always send thank you notes..... We probably send them when we don't need to, but I'd rather do that than not at all.

 

[katesorad]

I always send thank you notes! I send them when people have us over to their home for dinner, for gifts, etc. I have a few different very pretty types of purchased thank you notes that I send to in-state relatives or friends that I see often, and I make homemade cards and send photos as well to out of state relatives or friends that I don't see often.

 

[2binak]

Sadly, I too have noticed that sending thank you cards for big events (weddings & showers) seems to be too bothersome for people.

We've sent 2 wedding shower & 3 baby shower gifts and given 2 wedding gifts in-person over the last 3 years and only received 1 thank you card for 1 of the wedding gifts. We even traveled 6 hours to both weddings and never received a thank you card from one set of newlyweds.

ETA - we saw all of these people within 3 months of their events and we didn't even get a thank you then.

 

[FormrCastMbr]

I send thank you notes probably about 80 - 90% of the time and have my son send them too. If I do not send them, it is probably because I thanked them in person, via phone or sent a note via internet but I do like to send handwritten notes.

 

[luvmarypoppins]

Recently I gave 2 wedding shower gifts, even though I didnt attend either. Never got a thank you note from either girl. One girl I see and she didnt even verbally thank me either.(She did manage to cash the check I sent however)

I think its a trend today. Maybe they said thank you at the showers.

Soon I am going to be invited to another bridal shower that I am not attending and I dont expect to receive a thank you note from this one either.

When I had my cancer surgery I always tried to write a thank you note to everyone who cooked me meals, sent flowers etc.

 

[jiminyC_fan]

I always send thank you cards. I have noticed that very few people do anymore. I find it in very poor taste to accept a gift and not properly thank someone. It doesn't take that much time.

 

[GaSleepingBeautyFan]

People really don't send Thank you cards anymore. I used to like to read the ones from my nephews. I never knew what they'd say. Now they don't send me one anymore.

I got a thank you for the thank you cards from my husbands Great Aunt. Every year she sends our kids a little something so I make sure the kids send her thank you cards.

Whatever the kids wrote on them (I don't read them), tickled her this year because she said she loved them and the kids were very creative.
I'm not sure if that's a good thing but at least I know she appreciated the thank you cards.

 

[LuvOrlando]

I like to send them and think most people out there would like to send them too but now that it costs nearly 50 cents per card to mail and money is so tight with people I think it's become too expensive for many people to afford. This year between the cards & postage, sending my Christmas Cards cost a small fortune. I can understand why people without money to burn would give it up.

 

[RunningGirl]

I've been to 2 weddings in the past year (and given each nice gifts) and neither sent a thank you card.

 

[ols386]

I usually send a thank you card when I think it's appropriate. Recently I was in a situation where I probably should have sent a card, but neglected to do so, and the person who I should have sent a card to, got mad at me, and she specifically said it was because she received no card from me.

I didn't do it intentionally, I would never want to hurt her feelings. It was an oversight on my part. As soon as I found out that she was mad at me, I went and bought a card, wrote a nice message on the inside, and mailed it to her. It might be one of those things where it's "too little, too late", but I did go ahead and send the card.

 

[TLuvsD]

If you can't afford postage, send an email...or a postcard. I always send thank yous, and our D knows that if she doesn't write those notes in a day or two, then her gifts will be packed up until she gets them written. I rarely have to remind her more than once to write the notes.
I can live with a verbal thank you...but if I send a gift, send a thank you so I know it's arrived!

 

[Sorsha]

Nope - we don't send them. I think it is dying out, and I - for one - say let it die.

Now, I do make certain that people get thanked. People get an email, or a face-to-face thank-you, or a phone call, as well as, in the case of really close friends, a nod on facebook . The only time I can remember sending a card recently was to DH's extremely elderly grandmother who lives two states away for the 10 dollars she tucked into a Christmas card. Believe it or not she sent us a thank-you card thanking us for the thank-you card. We chose to stop before it got out of control.

I hate writing ANYTHING by hand. I don't write letters, I don't write cards, I just plain don't write if I can help it. I don't send Christmas cards or birthday cards or letters or announcements or ANYTHING through snail mail. Everybody gets the electronic equivalent or a phone call unless they are too elderly to be hooked up to the electronic world. Yeah yeah, Emily Post is rolling over in her grave - don't care. I am very polite in my emails and I am very careful to be sure no one gets left out, but nothing gets done by hand. Its the wave of the future, IMHO.

 

[ols386]

If you can't afford postage, send an email...or a postcard. I always send thank yous, and our D knows that if she doesn't write those notes in a day or two, then her gifts will be packed up until she gets them written. I rarely have to remind her more than once to write the notes.
I can live with a verbal thank you...but if I send a gift, send a thank you so I know it's arrived!

If someone can't afford postage, then they probably can't afford to have internet to be able to send a thank you email. So I would think in that case, a verbal thank you would have to do....but at least it would be a thank you.