Betsy Veldman
Well, for the most part, the holiday craziness is behind us. The tree is bare, the gifts have been opened and the goodies have been eaten. Now it’s time to pause and take a moment to say thanks.
When I was a kid, my mom would make us take some time during Christmas vacation to write out thank you notes for the gifts we had received. Somewhere along the line, that tradition has disappeared. So this year I decided to resurrect it. I think it’s important that my children learn to be grateful for the things they receive, and what better way to show it than to take a few minutes to write a little note!
I decided to make it easy and send out some postcards. Postcards are nice because they are easy to mail, they don’t need envelopes and you’ll save on postage. You could very easily create your own from some cardstock and stamps. If you’re going to make your own, be sure to check on size requirements. I found this on the USPS site:
Postcards stamps are: $0.28
Size limits:
- Minimum: 3-1/2 inches high by 5 inches long by 0.007 inch thick
- Maximum: 6 inches long by 4-1/4 inches high
- Additional postage required for larger postcards
Or you could make it really easy on yourself and do what I did. Visit http://www.premiumpostcard.com. It’s a service connected with the USPS where you can upload your own photo, add your message and select your addresses. You can customize each postcard for its recipient. And when you’re finished they will mail them for you! How easy is that?
With this idea in mind, I snapped a few quick pics of my kids while we were taking our family Christmas card photo. The inspiration for the photo came from my good friend Becky Oehlers and her altered art photo in this post. I did a super simple version of the card by going completely digital and adding the little gifts digitally, instead of with a stamp. I love the way they turned out and hope they will bring a smile to the recipient, as well as show our gratitude!
I’d love to hear your ideas for showing gratitude after the holidays and if you have any traditions similar to this. I’d love to hear about them!
Betsy Veldman,
Paper Crafts Go-to Gal
As a child, we were allowed to play with our gifts for one day and then a thank you note had to be written in order to play with it again. My mother made sure they were detailed and written properly! I have to say I don’t remember resenting it at all, and although I’ve given my kids more than a day to play, they excel at thank you notes. They are now adults, and I’ve had friends tell me what wonderful notes they write. Your postcards are a fabulous idea. I usually put a pack of notecards in my kids’ stockings! This year I added stamps as well.
We dont send thank-you notes…and im not sure why we dont. My son says TY so much (and even gives hugs and sometimes kisses) and to most that is good enough
What a great idea! I think I would have to harness a huge amount of patience to allow my daughter to write out ALL of her thank you cards. I think the results would be well worth it though! In the past I’ve had her write out a generic (but sweet!) thank you note, then scanned that into the computer and printed it out for all of the thank you cards. That was super time saving, but still somewhat personal being that my daughter wrote the note on her own. One thing I need to get better at this year is doing thank you cards – and SENDING them…lol! – Your idea to make postcards is so great! You’ve got my creative wheels turnin’ Becky! Thanks for sharing!
Very cute postcards! I typically do handwritten thank yous!
We’re in the habit of thanking as soon as we recieve the gift. My kids this year did want to write thank you letters to Santa. They asked if that was ok. I told them sure. They’re always saying thank you.
We received gifts from immediate family so no mailing needed this year. But it’s a fab idea!!
Thx for the inspiration!
Your munchkins are adorable!
What an awesome idea, Betsy! I love it!
LOVE your photo! Those little presents in their hands is the perfect touch
Thank you for the brilliant idea! I’ll have to use that next year…..I already made my thank you cards! sigh*
Thanks for the reminder! I was thinking about letting my kids make Thank You cards this year, but I kinda forgot!
So now we have a project for the day! Thanks! Love the sweet pic of your kids! 
I help my boys (now that they’re old enough) make a hand made gift that they give as a thank you to everyone who gives them a present. This year it was a hand made Christmas ornament.
Oh Betsy – you just lightened my load! What a great idea…..I was not looking forward to MAKING (and paying for) 30 thankyou cards. This will speed things up.
Thanks!
~Shari R.
this is such a great idea!- and how cute are those sweet kids!?!
thanks for this info about sizes, etc.
and I love your photo!!! THANK YOU!!!
What a great idea. I get my son to make thank you cards for gifts he has given too. I love the online post card service. One thought though. Does it mean as much to the kids when they can’t make/write them themselves? Just curious how they helped?
Thanks for the link! I’ll be keeping postcards in mind for next year’s thank-yous! I think your photo is adorable.
I usually whip up a batch of Thank-you notes for my kids to fill out right after Xmas. Sometimes they have photos of the gifts they received, to personalize the note. I wasn’t that organized this year, just the same design for the ~7-10 notes we send out. But we did get the notes out the weekend after Christmas. yay us!
Thanks for the sweet comments, everyone! Rebecca – I had the kids tell me their thank you messages while I typed. They thought it was fun.
Betsy,
Brilliant!!! I’ve said to my kids all week, “we’ve got to write thank you letters”. So far, nothing. But if I say “cards” I bet they will be more likely. Letters scare them…so formal. Thanks!You are a genius!
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