History Main / TheDreadedThankYouLetter

* In ''ComicStrip/{{Peanuts}}''. Sally once waited six weeks to write a thank you letter to her grandmother.

* ''Literature/DiaryOfAWimpyKid'': In one of the books, Greg needs to write his Christmas thank you letters but is in a hurry because he has a project he wants to do, so he just writes a bunch of near-identical letters with the format "Dear A, Thank you so much for the awesome B! How did you know I wanted that for Christmas? I love the way the B looks on my C! All my friends will be so jealous that I have my very own B. Thank you for making this the best Christmas ever! Sincerely, Greg", which comes out looking weird when one of the gifts was a pair of pants.

->''I thought that my parents made me write thank-you notes for my birthday and xmas presents because they were jealous that I got so many presents and therefore wanted to punish me.''

* Parodied in ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' episode "Miracle on Evergreen Terrace"; Moe sends a death threat in the mail, to which Homer responds "Oh, great, now we have to send him one".

[[folder:Podcasts]]

* ''Literature/DiaryOfAWimpyKid'': In one of the books, Greg needs to write his Christmas thank you letters but is in a hurry because he has a project he wants to do, so he just writes a bunch of near-identical letters with the format "Dear A, thank you very much for the awesome B. I love the way the B looks on my C. All the other boys will be jealous that I have my very own B. Sincerely, Greg Heffley", which comes out looking weird when one of the gifts was a pair of pants.

They might try to save time by having a very short message (for example, just "thank you" and nothing else) or [[BrutalHonesty blatantly admitting that they dislike the gift]] if that's what's the problem, or (if they have to write a bunch of them) writing a bunch of near-identical letters and filling in the details. These letters might then be read by someone else (usually a parent or teacher) who will insist the letter-writer try again.

This is becoming less of a problem with the advent of the Internet, but still lingers on sometimes.

* ''Literature/AdrianMole'': When Adrian receives a birthday present of a toothbrush holder made by a prisoner Grace Pool, his aunt tells him to write and thank her. He writes an extremely short letter, and is not happy about having to do so.

* In ''Literature/{{Hogfather}}'', Ridcully turns out to be the only one who enjoyed writing thank-you letters as a child (among other Hogfather trappings like playing boardgames and emptying chimney stockings). He compares the rest of the staff's cynical remembrances to watching men kick apart a dollhouse.

* ''Literature/ASmartGirlsGuideTo'': In "A Smart Girl's Guide to Manners", the parts that teach how to write thank you notes talk about how "it's not that bad" and how the girls reading the book "may not love writing thank you notes" but have to do it anyway.

* In the ''Literature/MrMen'' books, it took Mr. Slow until Easter to write his thank you letters.

* ''ComicStrip/CalvinAndHobbes'': One strip shows Calvin writing a thank you letter to his grandmother after Christmas. He claims he does it right after getting a gift from her, ever since she sent a sarcastic message that said she was just checking to see if the mail service was still working.

* ''ComicStrip/CalvinAndHobbes'': One strip shows Calvin writing a thank you letter after Christmas. He does it promptly, ever since she sent a sarcastic message that said she was just checking to see if the mail service was still working.

* In ''Discworld/{{Hogfather}}'', Ridcully turns out to be the only one who enjoyed writing thank-you letters as a child (among other Hogfather trappings like playing boardgames and emptying chimney stockings). He compares the rest of the staff's cynical remembrances to watching men kick apart a dollhouse.

* The poem "Christmas Thank Yous" by Mike Gower has thg narrator writing carefully-worded thank you letters to various relatives whose gifts were poorly thought out in one way or another, before sincerely thanking his grandad ... who just sent him cash.

* The poem "Christmas Thank Yous" by Mike Gower has thge narrator writing carefully-worded thank you letters to various relatives whose gifts were poorly thought out in one way or another, before sincerely thanking his grandad ... who just sent him cash.

* In ''Literature/{{Hogfather}}'', Ridcully turns out to be the only one who enjoyed writing thank-you letters as a child (among other Hogfather trappings like playing boardgames and emptying chimney stockings). He compares the rest of the staff's cynical remembrances to watching men kick apart a dollhouse.

* Literature/{{molesworth}} has a multiple-choice form for thank-you letters. (“And i hav [broken it already / no patience with it / given it to the poor boys / dismantled it]”)

May lead to AnAesop about thankfulness and/or manners. Sometimes overlaps with UnwantedGiftPlot and HomemadeSweaterFromHell. Sometimes TruthInTelevision. May be part of a ChristmasEpisode or BirthdayEpisode.

!! Examples