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Thank you.
Thank you ever so much for the lovely toaster oven, my husband and I will cherish it forever.
Thank you for the delightful door stop, the two little puppies with the welcome bone in their mouths shall surely make our company feel welcome.
Thank you for the cheap stoneware, its already broke once and I'm nervous about using the rest of the pieces, thank you for making cooking an adventure. . .
As you may have already guessed this is a rant about the lowly thank you card. I may be called etiquette challenged, but I just can't stand writing thank you notes, especially if the person was right there when I opened their gift.
You're at a wedding shower and everyone that has attended has offered a gift — great! As each one is opened, the newly acquired article of whatever is admired. To me it would be a far greater offence if the recipient merely shrugged their shoulders, smiled weakly and tossed the thing back into the bag. Now on the other hand, should they react more receptively by thanking me and smiling at me, that would be great, in fact that would be completely sufficient. I saw them open the gift, I saw them admire it and I saw them thank me. What could be more pleasing than that? Who needs the redundancy that only a thank you note can offer? And besides — it's a note. What good is a note? It's like you weren't worth a letter or care package so here's a bloody note for your efforts!
My greatest peeve with the thank you note is the going idea that you can't simply write thank you for your kind gift, no, you have to name the gift (as though the giver has mindlessly forgotten what they paid for, wrapped, and gave) and then explain to them how you're going to use their gift in your everyday life. Has the giver perhaps forgotten how to use things such as toaster ovens, cookware and the like? If they didn't
know what it was for I doubt that they would be giving it as a present to anyone. Well, unless they are hoping that someone, somewhere, at some point
will be able to shed light on the usefulness of their gift.
Finally, I have to ask what is the point? I mean honestly, what is a person going to do with a thank you note? "Oh, honey we just got our thank you note from the MacDonalds, seems that they really did like the knife set we gave them, the juggling show that Brian put on wasn't just an act, they like them, they really like them! I'm so excited, I just have to file this card away for future reference!" Or is it more of an insurance thing — you get the note, they say that they like your gift and are ever so thankful for it, so you head over to their place with the note tucked neatly into your back pocket. As you enter their home you immediately start scanning the place for your gift and when to your horror it is no where to be found you whip out the note and start yelling at the top of your lungs "You said you liked it, you SAID that you were thankful for it! So where is it, you cheap ingrates!"
Now don't get me wrong, I do believe that there is a time and place for the thank you note. For instance the gift giver that lives too far away to attend and was unable to hear you thank them, now its those people who deserve a thank you card. So to those of you who are willing and able to attend the birthday, or shower or whatever gift giving event it may be and for whatever reason expect to get a thank you card, "Suck it up Princess!" No one needs a thank you note. Isn't a heartfelt verbal 'thank you' accompanied by a smile enough?
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