Death of the thank you letter! Now granny can just expect a text instead

WRITING thank-you letters used to be a Boxing Day chore for children who would rather have been playing with their new toys.

But now it seems Auntie Nora would be just as happy to receive an email, text or Facebook message as a handwritten note, a survey found.

Three-quarters of the 1,300 questioned said they no longer expect a traditional letter or card for gifts on birthdays, Christmas and other special occasions.

Half said they would be happy with a digital thank-you, either in the form of an email, text message or Facebook post, while a quarter said they are happy with a phone call, according to the research by gift website The Present Finder.

It also suggests that handwritten thank-you letters will be overtaken by digital messages for the first time in 2016.

Last year 51 per cent of people who sent a thank-you message wrote a letter or card, while 49 per cent used email, text or social media.

Mark Ashley Miller, of The Present Finder, said: ‘Some people may regret the demise of handwritten thank you letters and cards, but most Britons are happy to receive an email, text or Facebook message.

‘Digital communication is taking over the way many people speak to each other in their everyday lives, so thanking someone for a gift in this way is no different.’

The survey follows recent comments by Ann Widdecombe calling on parents to encourage their children to write thank-you letters for their Christmas gifts – even if they only do so by text message. The former MP lamented society’s loss of manners in a column for Radio Times, and urged parents to get children writing to acknowledge their Christmas presents.

She wrote: ‘There are those who lament the substitution of text for the handwritten letter, but “thanks Gran, u r gr8”, sent in the moment of unwrapping, has a glorious spontaneity and gratitude, which the ritual letter does not.’

Miss Widdecombe will be exploring the art of manners in her new Radio 4 series, The Etiquette Guide. Another recent survey revealed that more than half of parents now post pictures on social media of their children playing with their gifts instead of getting them to send handwritten thank-you letters.

The research, by parenting network Channel Mum, found one in ten parents uploads videos of their children playing with new toys and nearly half post photographs of them doing so, often immediately after the presents have been unwrapped on Christmas morning. But according to etiquette guide Debrett’s, the thought put into a handwritten note is just not the same as a text: ‘As a general rule, a thank-you letter should always be handwritten and sent within a week to ten days of an event or receipt of a present.

‘Remember that in our digital age, a handwritten letter is always appreciated so, for maximum impact, make the effort to write promptly.’