To Thank or Not to Thank.

Christmas has come and gone, and with it comes the question of thank you notes. I’ll admit; I don’t write them. This happens for several reasons, but mainly I think that they are stupid, and I am lazy. However, there are bigger problems.

 

 

So basically,  no one gets anything really special. No one gets anything because they know the person,  but because it’s a formality. I still feel that it is a case of, “Here’s a present because I must.”

The other problem that i have is that I can’t say that I don’t like the present. I find this silly, but we learned from experience. My brothers once got Axe for Christmas. They had no desire for this at all. (One of them at this time barely put on deodorant.) But when my mom even suggested that they might not like the present and would rather return it, we were told that you are never suppose to tell someone you don’t like their present.

So now on this thank you I need to come up with something to say to someone who I hardly speak to throughout the year, who didn’t give me anything original, and say it in such a way that even if I don’t like the present, it doesn’t come out as a lie.

This results in a thank you along the lines of:

Thank you for [the gift]. It was really nice and thoughtful.

How is anyone suppose to know from that what the receiver  really thinks? For me, picking out presents is an art. I think about what I know of the person, what the person likes, and then I try to come up with something unique. It’s that kind of thinking that lead me to give my mom a pot for Hanukkah. Why? Because she likes heating up coffee on a stove and we don’t have any small enough for her cup. But I know that my mom likes the present, because she called it her pot today, told my dad not to use it, and she has used it. And that is what I would like to hear from other people about presents.  Not just, “Thanks for the present.” 

On top of all this, I just began getting grandparents presents. I have a job and my parents figured that it was probably about time that I do. But I didn’t get my own thank you for it. My grandma sent us all one card as a family. Besides that, talking to my grandma and hearing that she likes  the cup I bought her meant more than any piece of paper.

So, any thoughts on how to write thank you? Any opinions about whether you should write them or not?