Using One Envelope for Thank You Card and Christmas Card? - UPDATE #19

[MariaE]

At US$2 per letter, I'd go with tacky every day. Postage prices are ridiculous.

That said, I actually don't think it's tacky. It's economical and makes perfect sense. I'd find it exceedingly odd if somebody sent me two letters/card in two different envelopes on the same day.

[Sharnita]

$2 postage on a letter? I guess maybe a business letter with several pages but for a Christmas or Thank You card 45 cents would get it done.

[MariaE]

$2 postage on a letter? I guess maybe a business letter with several pages but for a Christmas or Thank You card 45 cents would get it done.

Not in Denmark. Cheapest postage is US$1.50 for a domestic letter. The prices only go up from there.

[bloo]

Not at all tacky. I think it's ridiculous when my bank sends me two letters in two different envelopes, I think receiving two letters from the same friend in two envelopes on the same day would be even sillier. I'm pretty practical about these sorts of things, though.

At US$2 per letter, I'd go with tacky every day. Postage prices are ridiculous.

That said, I actually don't think it's tacky. It's economical and makes perfect sense. I'd find it exceedingly odd if somebody sent me two letters/card in two different envelopes on the same day.

I agree with the above.

While I wouldn't be offended to receive two separate envelopes, I'd think it weird and impractical. I'd spend zero time being offended at a two-in-one because I'd be so cheered that someone thought to send me anything at all!

[StuffedGrapeLeaves]

Thanks for all the input!  We ended up doing two envelopes mainly because unexpected things happened and we haven't gotten a chance to pick up our Christmas cards, yet (we did them online and chose the local pickup option).  We didn't want to wait to send the thank you cards, so those were mailed first. 

How old is DS?  If he is old enough to write his own cards, I vote like the others- two cars in two envelopes.
If he is little, I vote just an extra note of thanks inside the Christmas card.

DS is four, so he can't write his own thank you note, but I did have him write his name on each card. 

[ScubaGirl]

Sounds fine to me.

A condalence card and a Christmas card together? -Nope. But two happy event cards together seems fine to me.

I received a condolence card regarding my mother's passing and they included a birth announcement and a picture of their little girl.  It did not sit well with me.

[lady_disdain]

Sounds fine to me.

A condalence card and a Christmas card together? -Nope. But two happy event cards together seems fine to me.

I received a condolence card regarding my mother's passing and they included a birth announcement and a picture of their little girl.  It did not sit well with me.

Ouch! That was tactless.

[Lynnv]

I don't see any problem with it.  If I need to send someone two things and can combine the costs for shipping it, it just makes sense to me to do so.

[emwithme]

OK, I'm tacky then 

I recently sent my wedding thank you cards.  I addressed the envelope (informal names) and then put it inside the christmas card which was then "properly" addressed.  It didn't increase my postage costs (as both were relatively thin and light), and meant that I finally had the impetus to get my thank you cards out - and actually send my christmas cards "early" for me!

How long ago was your wedding? 

It is  rude and tacky to include a TY note for a gift giving occasion such as a wedding when people took the time to attend and bring you a gift and then combine a TY with a holiday greeting?   A TY should be one in itself to thank someone for their attendance/gift, not a convenient way to combine Merry Christmas with Thanks for the blender.     

We got married in mid-September.  I was quite ill after the wedding (I have ME and hit a major "crash") and pretty much stayed in bed for a month. 

The thank you cards *were* separate cards, in a separate envelope, placed inside the Christmas card envelope.  Each had a separate (different) thank you message, handwritten and personal to the person(s) involved. 

I'm just glad now I've got them out and haven't got the guilt about not having sent my thank you cards in a timely fashion, as everyone was so generous.  People have, of course, had personal thank yous when we have seen them in the interim, and I sent a couple of emails (enclosing the link to the photo site etc) to people explaining why the "proper" thank yous were late and why I hadn't been "around" much. 

[CakeEater]

I think thank-yous and Christmas cards are both 'happy' things, so go well in an envelope together. A sympathy card and a birth announcement is less appropriate.

[Dandy Andy's Daddy's Love]

Etiquette doesn't require people to send thank you cards at all. It requires people to send thank you notes. Most people these days choose to use cards, because they use the mail for so few methods of correspondence. There wouldn't be anything tacky at all about writing the thank you note right inside the Christmas cards if you wanted to. A written acknowledgement of the gift and your gratitude for it are all that is required of you when you receive a present. If someone were to get bent out of shape that their Christmas card and thank you note came in the same envelope, I'd say that person is not as generous as their gift initially made them appear.

[Lynn2000]

I could go either way.  I can't see myself getting offended to receive a TY card + Xmas card in the same envelope; a TY written on the Xmas card; or two completely separate envelopes from the same person.

Honestly I think I personally would probably send them as two separate envelopes. It would be for my own peace of mind and organizational issues. I would probably have a list of Xmas cards to send and a list of TY cards to send, and I would keep the two stacks separate and keep counting them and matching them with the list. My little brain could not handle putting two cards in the same envelope, I think...

[kareng57]

It would be fine with me, as long as they were both joyous-occasions cards.  That being said, I wouldn't be impressed if a HC waited 7 or 8 months to send a TY note, figuring that they could piggyback on their Christmas cards.

[lady_disdain]

It would be fine with me, as long as they were both joyous-occasions cards.  That being said, I wouldn't be impressed if a HC waited 7 or 8 months to send a TY note, figuring that they could piggyback on their Christmas cards.

The idea that the thank you notes were delayed to be mailed together with the Christmas cards wouldn't even cross my mind. I would wonder if something had happened to the couple (as in this case), if they had forgotten or if life had gotten in the way.

[TootsNYC]

If I got them both together, I'd assume that they struggled to get the thank-you notes done, decided that by gum they were NOT sending them *after* the Christmas cards, and that they then kicked in and made sure to finish them all. And mailed them together.

Personally, I would send the thank-you separately, especially a *wedding* thank-you.

As the recipient, I might make a small negative mental note if someone wrote their thank-you on the inside of the Christmas card--and then probably forget it or only remember it as an oddity; probably would think "how smart" if they put the thank-you note (with or without its envelope) in the Xmas card.