Thank You Letters: Chore or Pleasure?

Does this chain of events happen in your house?

We had a wonderful time opening these....

and these.....

and now with school again tomorrow it was time to sit down to this.......

A Chore for my kids

I would love to pretend they happily come to the table to sit and write their letters however that would be a fib. Prior to the orderly writing shown above comes a good 15 minutes of arguing, huffing and puffing, slumping of shoulders and conversations like this:

all followed by me threatening to send back all the presents if they can't sit down and say thank you, and so they come to the table, cut and paste old Christmas cards and knuckle down to some writing. Even Farmer Nick has to set the example and write to his Aunt and Uncle!

When the children were young it was easier, I could write the card and they just signed them. Now that they are too old for this and really have to do it all themselves it is much harder for them and for me!

35 cards they turned out between the six of them today. They are not works of art and some suffer from minimal content but every present from Aunts, Uncles, Grandparents and God Parents has a card of thanks ready for posting in the morning. How school manages to keep them working at a desk all day is beyond me. An hour or so here is all I can take. 

Do you think writing thank you letters is still important?

If I received a text or an email as thanks from those I send presents to I would be fine about it, yet I still insist on mine writing old fashioned thank you letters and cards. I would like to let them move on but am not yet sure it is socially acceptable to do so. Do you go through the same process? Do you think it is OK to say thanks face to face or by email, text, a phone call, skype or facebook and are some alternative forms going to become acceptable before others?