Thank You Note Question ...

InACitySoNice

Okay, my elder daughter went to a school friend's birthday party 2 months ago.  H went with her because I was sick.  He said there were over 100 people there, along with a magician, face painter, clown ... He refused to bring home the goodie bag because he said (and another friend agreed) that he would have needed a suitcase, there was so much inside.  This was her 4th birthday.

Fast forward to yesterday, 2 months later.  We received the thank you note.  It was made through Shutterfly and a general "Thanks to everyone for everything!" note.  I was a little surprised.

Now, maybe I'm old fashioned, but there should have been personal thank you's, right?  I mean, this kid got more gifts than most brides and grooms on their wedding day.  I would've taken the time to sit down and write the notes by hand ... or (since they're dripping with money) paid a service to write them for me.  I've seen her use the gift we got her so I know she likes it, but ... Call me crazy, but no matter how long it took, I would've written those thank yous.

What do you think?

njdcgirl

Oh yeah...handwritted, individualized notes.  For sure.

Christakim

I'm guessing the parents would  have had to have written 100 individualized thank you notes for the kid. 

I would meet in the middle and say that the Shutterfly thing was an acceptable idea (I'm not old fashioned with thank you notes by any stretch of the imagination) but they needed to be typed to EACH PERSON, not just one note saying thank you, that's not very personal.

leslie&brian

I agree with you. I'm very old fashioned when it comes to thank you notes. I think they should be personalized, and hand written. I hate the generic thank yous. We received one of those for a wedding! On the other hand, I guess that it's better than not receiving a thank you card at all.

juliannat

Totally agree with you. Yes, any thank you is better than NO thank you...but a personal note is always best in my books. The bigger issue IMO is WTH are they doing having a birthday party with 100 kids? seems waaay over the top!

brideinOC

If you're going to invite that many people, then they should be prepared to write that many thank yous.  I'm old fashioned like this.  The only compromise might have been a shutterly card with several pics from the party or of the child with a small handwritten note to specifically thank each person.  I can't tell you how many thank yous I did for wedding, showers, baby presents. 

JillRock96

leslie&brian:

I agree with you. I'm very old fashioned when it comes to thank you notes. I think they should be personalized, and hand written. I hate the generic thank yous. We received one of those for a wedding! On the other hand, I guess that it's better than not receiving a thank you card at all.

This.  We did the shutterfly thank-you card for our wedding, but it was only so that we could include a picture.  We hand-wrote thank you notes to each person on the back of the cards.  We also get a lot of the generic thank-yous from all of our friends with kids, and it does bug me a bit.  I know it takes time to write the notes, but I do think it is important.  If you don't want to write all the notes, then don't invite so many people.  Whenever I feel overwhelmed writing thank-yous, I think of the time it takes for me to write out the card as opposed to the time it took for the person to pick out, purchase, and wrap or send the gift (not to mention the money that they spent) -- helps put it in perspective.

InACitySoNice

Thanks for your thoughtful responses, ladies!  I mean, I know it's a lot of work to personalize, but, yeah, it's a lot of work to spend the money, write the birthday card, wrap the gift, show up on time, etc.  And I agree, if you invite that many people and get that many gifts, be prepared to thank everyone individually.

Seriously, they could have gotten a service to do individual notes. 

Yeah.  Over 100 kids to the 4th birthday party.  Sooo glad I was too sick to go!  LOL!

Leanie

totally agree with you but I wouldn't have invited all that craziness for a 4th bday.  And I hate goody bags.