January 20, 2010
Break with tradition and make the thank you note process a little more great-ful.
It’s been almost a month since Christmas and my kids just sent out their Thank you notes, well sort of.
I don’t know about you, but sitting my 2 boyz down with lovely stationary, clean hands, and a good pen and asking them to nicely write out their notes of extreme gratitude is like having to watch a Tori Spelling reality show marathon completely sober. Brutal with a capital B.
So this year, my husband and I decided to try “going rogue” (the only thing Sarah Palin has said that I actually kinda like).
We decided to hand-over one of our Flip video cameras and let the boys produce their own thank you “shorties.” That’s slang for “short films” in artsy I-make-my-career- in-film lingo.
My husband helped produce the thank you “shorts” but he really let the talent run the show.
The boys made a list of who they needed to thank, gathered some of their gifts as props, made sure the camera was charged and off they went.
I have to say for the first time ever the boys were happier than Tiger Woods in Vegas as they created their video “notes” letting all of the relatives know individually how much they loved their gifts.
We used our Mac to create a family website a while ago, so we selected one of the templates they had available in iMovie to make a page where all of the thank you videos could be viewed by everyone. All we had to do was send everyone the link.
Producing all of the thank you messages only took a few hours from start to finish. If you don’t have a program to help you create a family site, you can easily send individual videos right from your phone or computer. The Grandparents and Aunts and Uncles seemed to love this form of thank you just as much as the hand-written variety.
So, if you have access to a camera or a phone with video capability, and a computer, go ahead and cheat a little.
I say let your screen loving offspring use their affinity for social media to promote good manners and proper etiquette for a change.
It’s a win/win for everyone involved.
PS: I’m in negotiations to get my boys to agree to post one of their videos here for all to see.
I LOVE it! Great idea, very creative and perfect for engaging your boys in the process of saying thanks. That’s what raising gracious kids is all about.
Love it! We aren’t that techy, but my three boys, without much grumbling, did their thanks on the computer. They created their own “stationary” with clip art, and fancy “cursive” fonts. Each of the relatives got a different version, and were very pleased.
Fantastic idea, Meredith! Especially for those of us with young children who can’t write yet. I love it.
I have to say, this went so well that I’m thinking the video thanks might be our new M.O.
I’ve stared envisioning thank you shorts with song and dance numbers, puppets, back drops and maybe even special effects!
I think I need a day job.
Enjoy your thank-you cinematography girls!
Great idea. For the first time, I asked my 6 year old to write thank you notes to his friends for his birthday presents this year. He wrote them a few days ago, but now I’m realizing that I will have to hunt down approximately 10 slow-mail addresses to get them all out. Maybe I’ll just have him create a video thank you message for the last 10 kids and I can send the a video link to their moms. I’m friends w/ these moms so I think they’ll appreciate the creativity.
Hi Stacey!
So glad to help in the simplifying of the thank you process!
I am also very guilty of having my kids write thank you notes and them taking 2 weeks to get them addressed and stamped. And then it’s my ungrateful kids who look bad:)
Good luck with your video!!
Fabulous idea Meredith! My favorite thank you card of all time was for a one year old birthday gift. I received a photo in the mail of the little tyke posed on a sofa holding a big white posterboard with “Thank You” typed in a cute, big, red font. Adorable, efficient and perfect for the child of few words…:)
Fab idea…will def take on board for next round of thank you-s! xoxo
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