All the Cool Kids Are Writing Thank You Notes

Growing up, my mother always insisted that my brother and I write thank you notes. Every year, about a week after any holiday for which someone had sent us gifts or money, she'd whip out the stationery and my brother and I would have to stifle our groans of dread. We'd be spending the next hour or so (although it felt much, much longer) inside, carefully penning out our sincerest thanks. Even in college, whenever I came home for the weekend, she'd hand me a stack of notecards and I would dutifully take up residence at the kitchen table. It wasn't until recently that I realized that writing thank you notes no longer felt like a chore. As a teenager, pretty much everything seemed more important than expressing gratitude. That sounds bad, but what I mean is that, in some strange way, I just assumed that everyone knew that I was grateful.

Then I moved across the country. Since I've moved, my friends and I have determined that we rather enjoy getting mail, so birthdays and holidays have come to mean birthday cards and Christmas presents. And even though my friends I speak on a regular basis, I always send thank you cards. It's important to me, as a way to show my gratitude, as well as a way to brighten their day with a piece of mail with their name on it.

So, I really must thank my mother, because the reality is:

nothing shows your appreciation quite like a handwritten thank you note.

If you still don't believe me, here are some other people who agree:

"Let’s face it—we live in a digital world where people communicate in 140-characters or less and are constantly emailing and texting. The stream for communication is non-stop and instant, which is why discovering a hand-written note in your mailbox is such a refreshing surprise."
-Lauren Conrad (LC knows what's up.)

"Just like my mom had taught me, these notes don’t have to be a elaborate. All they require is genuine appreciation, letting the people in your life know that the small things they do make a big difference."
-Carlyann, Lovelyish

"...focus on one true, meaningful sentence about the gift or the person. The notes don't have to be long... sometimes limiting yourself to just a few sentences forces you to distill your sentiments."
-NPR Staff, NPR

That's truly the beautiful thing about thank you notes. They don't need to be elaborate or even eloquent. They just need to be sincere. The fact that you're writing one at all says quite a bit. In this digital age, we lose bits and pieces of our personal relationships to technology all the time. Hearing the sound of someone's voice has been replaced by the dinging of a text tone and the primary contents of my mailbox are annoying credit card applications. There's nothing better than getting a piece of mail from someone I actually know, seeing my name in their handwriting. We really should bring that back. It's the cool thing to do.

That's why we're putting our designer stationery on sale. Take 15% off our entire selection of Crane, William Arthur, Embossed Graphics and Kids Stationery until 6/3/13. Use code PS15WRITE at checkout and bring back the power of real mail.