I really appreciate all of the feedback. Maybe instead of personalized note cards or stationary I will just gift him good quality note cards or stationary without the personalization, as some have suggested. The general consensus does seem to be that at some point in the college process he will be writing handwritten thank yous to some people (teachers, recommendation writers, guidance counselors) but I am getting the sense that “personalized” note cards/stationary is not something a young person would necessarily want. Also, if even one recipient in the college process might think it’s weird to get a thank you on a personalized note card then I would hesitate to get that for my son. So I think I am leaning toward getting good quality note cards or stationary just nothing with personalization.
Do you think the notecards should have the kid’s name printed on them…or do you think the kids should write a personalized note.
I think the second…write the note.
Two of my daughters won a local rotary scholarship, $6000 over 4 years. They need to submit their grades and upcoming registration, they always add to the email about how college is going, and thanking the organization for the scholarship. This organization is so old school, they drop off the scholarship notification in person before award night. ETA scholarship recipients are strongly advised by the HS to send thank you notes to all organizations that gave them scholarships.
I’ve given my kids notecards with their initials in a Roman type font, black on ivory. They use them; was it their first choice of a gift? I’m sure not. But when you need to write a condolence note, congratulate your boss on her engagement, thank your mentor for time/attention/candor, it’s nice to have something simple and appropriate on hand.
The longer it takes to write- the greater the likelihood it won’t get written. And a hallmark “Sorry your sister died” note with angels lurking in the background is rarely appropriate IMHO.
I love this story! I like the idea of sending a personal note. What I meant by personalization is the note cards that I actually have and use have my name typeset at the top. Some have the sender’s initials. I originally received a set as a gift and since then I have used something similar for my correspondence. But I think I am leaning toward just getting my son good stationary without the added name or initials. I am going to try to attach some pictures. These are just from the internet. They are not mine but the one with the full name is similar to mine except mine has a border. I absolutely love that your child got additional scholarship funds by writing a personal note. So wonderful!
It’s a generational thing. Most of the younger generation do not send handwritten notes (nor do that expect them).
That said my kids were required to write thank you notes for gifts. They complained, however when D ( as a HS Senior) was awarded a very nice scholarship from the credit union I found out that she wrote a beautiful, well written letter of appreciation which they even posted on line. When S was a college freshman a friend from sent each of the college freshmen she knew a box of homemade cookies. I had no idea that he did this, but she let me know that he was the only one who sent a note of thanks. I made my mistakes with my kids but I got this one right.
Even young me would have LOVED to receive a gift like that!
Your kids sound awesome!
Yes, I forgot. All local scholarships won in our area, that were presented to the kids during a ceremony… the recipients were strongly encouraged to send hand written thank you notes to the committees. Mine did for all of theirs. The 4 year renewable one, that is given to dozens of students each year, older S sent a letter thanking them and letting him know the neat things he was able to do at school and his future employment.
Mine send written notes for some situations and electronic for others. Growing up they each had their own set of personalized note cards. Actually they still do. I don’t think they care at all what the note card looks like. IMO, I think it’s a nice gift - personalized or not - while maybe they won’t be used frequently it will make it a whole lot easier when they do need one.
As I said before I think these are kind of old school, but if he would like them I think they are fine. They remind me of my 80s high school days. We didn’t have these but we did have “calling cards” that were like business cards and we got to pick out the font for our names. My kids’ high school does not do this tradition anymore, but I’m sure you can still get them.
You can go to Shutterfly or Jostens or some of the other card or high school graduation sites and see what they offer for thank you cards if you want to see what the current trend is. I had announcement cards printed from Shutterfly because my kids didn’t want to do the ones from the company their high school worked with. They were too formal for my kids’ style. I just got postcards with photos of them (not cards that folded).
Shutterfly grad announcements: https://www.shutterfly.com/t/graduation-announcements/?icid=CS|Sub|C1|122622|Graduation|GradAnnouncements
Shutterfly grad thank you cards: https://www.shutterfly.com/t/graduation-thank-you-cards/?icid=CS|Sub|C1|122622|Graduation|GradThankYouCards
Shutterfly does offer some with the student’s name or initials so somebody must be buying that style or they wouldn’t be offering it. I’d just ask him what he’d like, but I wouldn’t make it a gift.
The company who is providing caps and gowns and all that jazz (Jostens or whoever) will also offer a variety of Class of 2023 thank you cards. I didn’t go that route. Just got some cute ones at Target.
Yes! My sons that he uses have his name printed on them as well.
I loved how you still send handwritten notes to thanks. I guess a majority of people use email to thanks. But a handwritten note is really the best-personalized gift for someone. It let other person feel how special they are in this area of life where people just text or send mail to each other. from now onwards I will start improving my writing style and will send notes as personalized gifts inspite of buying this product.
At my daughter’s school, most of the scholarships given out were called ‘Alum scholarships’ and a thank you note was REQUIRED. It went to the named alum if that person was still alive, or to the family. The school didn’t release the money until the note was received in the office. Almost every student who did study abroad got a Cheney family scholarship, and every single one wrote a letter to the Cheney family.
I think it is important for the students to realize there are real people behind the donated money. I think the school might also be hoping the recipients set up their own scholarships in the future and get those notes too.
For the most part, I don’t think anyone would disagree that it is a nice idea to send a note of thanks especially for a generous gift or gesture. I think what was most at question here was if personalized note cards with the sender’s name was a good gift idea for a student.
Bit of a side note, but related. When we were married (going on 42 years ago)part of our invitation packet including embossed cards with “Mrs and Mrs Abasket” on them. We used them for thank you cards of course. But we must have gotten an overabundance of them! Over the years while I’ve written some thank you or otherwise note cards, these were sort of fancy and indicated the note was from both of us while often it was really from ME, so I rarely used them. Found a stack of them not too long ago and think I tossed all but 1 or 2 just for the memory.
I used our informals up (and got many more over the years although not always personalized) by writing notes (instead of buying cards) when we give gifts to others for their weddings, for sympathy cards, birthday gifts for friends etc. I still prefer to use handwritten notes when I can but maybe I’m just old fashioned.
BUT lets get back to the OPs question about buying notecards for a HS student.
I wonder if hand-written notes with personalized stationery is, as is case with many other things on CC, regional?
I just recently included some personalized notes (full name with matching lined envelopes) in a care package to my 25-year-old graduate student. I have provided him with such cards his entire life. I am certain they aren’t his favorite, “gift” to receive. I don’t care. He can use them or not. And, while I do care about that and hope he does use them, I am certainly not monitoring his thank you note writing at this point in his life. He was brought up to write hand-written thank you notes where appropriate, and they are available to him should he choose to use them.
I don’t get the dislike of personalized cards (meaning - stationery/notecards with a name or monogram on them). Those are extremely common where I come from.
Old school or not - think about how YOU feel when you go to the mailbox and see something other than junk mail? I don’t know anyone who doesn’t like receiving a thank you note. Its very appearance/nature sets it apart from all the other mail you receive. Unlike an email - which looks like every other email. I cannot imagine ANYONE thinking a handwritten note, “weird.”
A card with one’s name is certainly not necessary if that isn’t what you/your son want. However, you can have anything you want written on customized stationery. You could have them printed with, “Thank You,” if you choose. That way you can get a better caliber of stock than you could at your neighborhood Walgreen’s. And, you can do the ink in any color and have matching lined envelopes. I’m sure Crane also makes nice cards with, “Thank You,” on them. There is nothing wrong with drugstore thank you notes. It’s what is written in the note that matters most. However, I find a lot of pre-printed, “Thank you,” cards tend to use swirly/girly script. Customizing them would allow you to select a more masculine font.
Reminder that the OP was about personalized note cards, not notes in general.
I think getting some kind of notecard is a nice idea. Not sure I think having the student’s name printed on it is necessary.
We give our kids thank you note as stocking stuffers every year. DD likes different Vera Bradley patterns, and DS likes plain ones.
We always include forever stamps with the cards! At this point, those can stamps can be more costly than some cards!
I received personalized thank you cards as a wedding gift. They were really quite lovely and I would have loved to use them. There was only one problem - they were embossed with “Mr and Mrs John Doe” and I did not change my name and thus they were really not all that useful to me. I used one to thank the giver and probably still have the other 99 stashed in a drawer somewhere.