In case you haven’t heard, December 26th is National Thank You Note day! In honor of the occasion, I thought I’d share a conversation that took place in the philosophical section of my living room couch.
Last week I received a Christmas card from my mom in the mail. My husband brought it into my apartment, and I eagerly opened the pretty envelope even though I already knew what I’d find inside. I handed the card to my friend and fellow millennial, expecting to hear her groan about this old fashioned practice. To my surprise, she said, “How pretty! Let’s put it next to your Christmas tree.”
My friend’s enthusiasm sparked my curiosity because she’s definitely not a print geek like me. She’s a nurse who has no interest in design or anything else of that nature. So her excitement caught me totally off guard. I asked, “Do you like getting greeting cards in the mail?”
“Yeah,” she replied. “They’re cool.”
“Me, too,” I said. And then I realized that her reaction really isn’t uncommon at all. In fact, I’ve never seen anybody have a negative reaction to a card. That got the gears in my head turning, and I thought about how many people put Christmas cards on display in their homes and offices. I wondered if my friend noticed this tendency as well.
“Isn’t it funny how people always want to show off Christmas cards?”
My friend knew exactly what I was talking about: “Oh totally. That’s what I do with them. Everyone puts them up.”
“That’s true. Hmmm…if everyone loves getting cards, and hanging them up, why don’t people send them anymore?,” I wondered.
A Thoughtless Generation?
To answer my question, I needed to look no further than the mirror. I admit that I can’t remember the last time I mailed out a Christmas card. Well, maybe I can. I believe the last piece of holiday snail mail I sent went to my Great Uncle who happens to be 97 year old.
Before you cast judgment, I assure you, my mother certainly didn’t raise me this way. She spent hours trying to get my brother & I to mail cards along with thank you notes to our relatives. Every birthday and Christmas, she’d put a stack of cards on the kitchen table for us to sign. She’d beg us to get them out in a timely fashion, but we’d usually spend about a month grumbling about the task before we got around to it. As an adult, I’ve never bothered to send cards. I operated on the assumption that verbal expressions of gratitude along with email would be enough to get the point across.
Boy was I wrong. I mean, who would want to show off a form email to their Christmas guests?
Despite the fact that I never wanted to send them, I always enjoyed receiving greeting cards growing up; we used to tape them up around the entry way to our house so everyone would see them when they dropped by. And it never occurred to me that other people would feel the same joy if I bothered to send them a printed note of appreciation. Thankfully, it’s not too late to redeem myself in 2013.
Thank You Notes are Throwbacks!
My friend and I decided we should bring back greeting cards—what better day than National Thank You Note Day to put our retro plan into action! Instead of thinking of mail as a form of antiquated communications, let’s embrace the throwback aspect of offline channels. Us Millenials are known for our obsession with vintage stuff, which means greeting cards should be super popular. It doesn’t get more old school than ink and paper.
I hope you’ll join me in my mission to promote real human interaction this holiday season. Let’s make 2014 as personal as possible with print!