Thanksgiving – ECARD

Thanksgiving – Does gratitude spring from your heart or from you lips?

How many people will you say, “Thank you” to, today?

Your doorman. The cab driver. The guy at the coffee shop. The person who holds the door open for you. Or asks you to have a seat in the lobby. When you think about it, you probably say “Thank you” more times than you realize everyday.

The question is, how many times do you really mean it?

We learn to say the words early on. Even 2-year olds know to thank you when you give them treats. Sure, the words sound sweet and it seems like they’re the right thing to say. But, when you give it some thought, you’ll probably see that most of the time, they’re empty.

We say thanks when someone wishes us a nice day, and yet, do we really spend a moment to appreciate the beautiful day outside? We say, “Thank you” to the person who hands out our order at the drive in. And yet, do we really feel the gratitude deep in our hearts, for the food we are so blessed to have everyday? “Thanks.” “Thank you.” “Appreciate it” are words we use over and over, without giving as much as a thought to what they really stand for.

Gratitude – is it just a seasonal, marketing tool?

It’s one of those over-stressed, yet under-valued concepts that has spotlight shined on it every once in a while. Like around Thanksgiving, for example. The entire month of November, you’ll probably see articles and blog posts everywhere you look about being thankful. Come December, and the focus will turn to the best holiday deals and New Year’s parties. Why is it that something that ought to be an intrinsic part of our lives and our vocabularies acquires importance only during certain times and fades away into oblivion for the rest of the year? How did we end up reducing gratitude to something like a seasonal allergy that we talk about only when everybody else is talking about it?

How do we go back to being grateful for and appreciative of the gifts in our lives, not just around Thanksgiving, but all through the year, year after year?

Before you say “Thank you”, stop. The next time you’re about to say the magic words, catch yourself. Think about what you’re going to say. Whether you’re about to thank the cashier at a store or the teller at the bank, remind yourself what you’re grateful for, before you utter the words. They will sound far more sincere, leaving you (and the other person) in a better, more appreciative frame of mind.
When you say it, mean it. Or don’t say it. When you say “Thank you”, make sure you’re expressing your feelings, not just exercising your lips.
Be thankful, even if you don’t say it out loud. There are countless gifts we’re blessed with – small and big, for which we can’t be thankful enough. Be it our family, friends, our health, our jobs, our lifestyles, the opportunities we’re given, the talents we have or just the fact that we’re alive. Regardless of your religious beliefs and faith, appreciate all that you have at least once everyday. You don’t have to be expressive – just spend 30 seconds thinking about and being thankful for the wonderful gifts in your life.
Thank the people closest to you. They’re the people who care the most for us and who love us unconditionally. They’re also the people we appreciate the least. Parents, grandparents, siblings, friends, children, husband/wife…we can never thank the people we love enough simply for being a part of our lives. Just thinking about what life would have been like without even one of them…makes me shudder. But, sadly, they’re the people, I’ve probably said the least “Thank you”s to! If you’re like me, today’s the day to change that and become more appreciative of all their loving gestures. If you’re not too good with words, or don’t live close to them, our Thank you Ecards are a great place to start. Of course, adding your personal note or even better, making your own Printable Thank You Cards would be great.

What are you really thankful for today? And how will you say it?

Keeping a Sense of Humor

As we gear up for the holidays, one important factor to maintain in our lives is a sense of humor. This Thanksgiving, send a FREE e-card to your friends instead of wasting hours surfing You-Tube for that eerie turkey video. Fun e-cards are a quick and easy way to put a smile on anyone’s face!

Two of our most popular funny e-cards are “Thanksgiving Rally for Turkeys” and “Black Friday.”

In “Thanksgiving Rally for Turkeys,” we are reminded that even the source of the popular Thanksgiving feast has one thing to celebrate: Vegetarians! A gaggle of turkeys carrying banners and signs show their support for herbivores. This e-card is perfect for those who abstain from meat, as well as that friend or family member who is notorious for scarfing every last morsel from their plate.

“Black Friday” cleverly reminds us that Thanksgiving is the predecessor to a whirlwind shopping adventure on what has become known as Black Friday. While many people spend Thanksgiving relaxing with family and friends, others use the newspaper ads and online specials to plan a shopping route to round up great holiday deals! Do you know anyone who would rather spend Thanksgiving with the circulars than the turkey? Remind them of the importance of family and friends with a super e-card!

Holiday festivities can be hectic and dramatic. Remind everyone you know to keep it light with a funny card from gotfreecards.com!

Thanksgiving Less Stress

Every holiday is stressful. But especially recently, too-high gasoline prices have added to that stress. Some—myself included—have even forgone traveling on the holidays the past couple years, electing instead to have a quiet meal alone, and then call family members who live far away to wish them well.

Even though the reasons may be due to the overall struggling economy, gas prices, as you no doubt have noticed, have dropped sharply in the past several weeks. I don’t know about you, but I’m spending about half as much money on gas now as I was a year ago. Of course this means a little extra money in the wallet, but it also means we can afford, at least a little more easily, to travel long distances to see our families on the holidays.

So this Thanksgiving, don’t worry about the economy for at least one day. For at least one day, just be thankful that it’s a little easier this time to make a long-distance trip out of town, to see friends and loved ones who lived far away.

Of course, even though you’re saving a little money, that doesn’t mean you should spend needlessly, either. One of those needless expenses is overpriced greeting cards from the department store. At gotfreecards.com, our free e-cards won’t cost you a dime, and all you have to do is enter an e-mail address to send it on its way. No stamps or envelopes needed for our animated e-cards!

Countless Ways to Say Thank You

Two words. Countless ways

When you appreciate someone, there are many different ways to say ‘Thank you’. You could make the effort to go meet the person and express your gratitude. You could pick up the phone and surprise him with a ‘Thank you’ phone call. If you get the voice mail, try to call back at another time, instead of simply leaving a message. Some of us prefer emails which offer another great option. But be sure to personalize each email instead of sending out a bulk email to multiple recipients. Traditional thank you notes never go out of fashion. They may be more time-consuming, and not many of us may have the patience to hand pick thank you cards and to pen our feelings of gratitude. But if we do take the effort, hand written thank you notes have a special way of touching people’s hearts and staying in their minds. They also give you the opportunity to convey your unique feelings for each person.

Sending personalized Thank you ecards are another wonderful way to say Thanks without spending a dime. When you choose a free ecard from gotfreecards.com, not only can you include your picture and personalized voice message, but also send creatively animated visuals to accompany your message.

Whichever method you choose, the sincerity with which you express your thanks is most important. Thanksgiving day offers us the opportunity to be thankful for all the gifts in our lives. Once a year may not be enough, but this Thanksgiving day could be a start to saying heartfelt ‘Thank you’s all through the year!

Thanksgiving = Turkey

For many, Thanksgiving is all about the consumption of turkey and the leftover turkey sandwiches the next day. But what about the turkeys? Every year millions of turkeys are raised for the sole purpose of becoming meals on Thanksgiving. How does this help us to give thanks?

Some might choose to ignore this fact, perhaps because they like that part of Thanksgiving, because to them, Thanksgiving = Turkey. They will defend the tradition, stating that we need to eat and that raising fowl for food is just something that is done; it is part of nature’s way, part of the food chain.

And yet there are many people who will do without the turkey, in the hopes that they will follow the President’s lead and pardon a turkey of their own. Perhaps they’ll be fine with eating just the pumpkin pie and the stuffing, for Thanksgiving IS the same to them even without the Turkey. It is a time for family, for togetherness, and yes for eating but eating other things perhaps not dictated by traditions. If you choose to start a tradition of your own, share your viewpoints and send some ecards from the Thanksgiving section that make a statement about saving the Turkeys and doing something new for a change. You never know, you might cause someone to go vegetarian this Thanksgiving! And that is ok, because it is still Thanksgiving, even without the turkey.

Gobble-Gobble

When I was a kid, it seemed to me that around November, school became a more fun place to go: there were treats all the time, holiday plays in the auditorium, and a couple of days off to look forward to. And who could forget the Thanksgiving arts and crafts! Every year in elementary school we had to make two things: a pilgrim and a turkey. The pilgrim was easy, we just needed to draw a big hat and a big buckle. The turkey was much more fun to make; we each traced our hands and creatively turned the thumb into the turkey’s head and the fingers into the colorful feathers.

Now that my kids are old enough for arts and crafts, I have been teaching them these age old November traditions. In the times of computer graphics and digital cameras, these activities are a bit too “cave-man” for my kids. But once I have their completed projects in my hands (of which I did most of the work) and stick them to the fridge, I am quickly taken back to my own childhood days and can’t help but smile.

You most likely know someone with their own childhood memories of holiday arts and crafts. Bring a smile to their face by sending them the free animated ecard, Turkey Hand. You’ll be sure to smile too, or at least say “gobble-gobble!”

Celebrate Thanksgiving Everyday

You don’t have to wait until Thanksgiving day to start expressing your thanks. You can start today. In fact, gratitude should have a place in our daily life. Everyday, we are showered with hundreds, maybe thousands of blessings, which most of us tend to take for granted. It’s not that we are not grateful, it’s just that our lifestyle leaves us little or no time to express thanks every day. So, how about simplifying it? Here’s an easy routine almost anyone who wishes to express gratitude more often can adopt. Simply make a list of five things you are thankful for every day. And then thank the people responsible for those five gifts. Doing this every day for a month, will make it a habit. And once something is a habit, it will easily fit into your lifestyle or schedule, no matter how hectic it is. For example, my list today might look something like this:

I am thankful for:
1.    The fact that I can work from home and stay close to my baby. I am grateful to all my clients who give me this opportunity.
2.    The laptop my husband gifted me last birthday. It is my window to the world.
3.    My parents who support me completely in all that I do and without whom it would be impossible for me to care for my child while still working from home.
4.    My best friend who is an inspiration, motivation and my guidance counselor whenever I need her.
5.    The view from my home office window which uplifts my mood and makes my work space inviting.

So, I am going to start today my sending a free ecards from gotfreecards.com to each and every person who makes my day and my life more beautiful. This year, I am not going to wait until Thanksgiving to say ‘Thank you’. How about you?

Thanksgiving-The Hidden Holiday

Thanksgiving often gets lost in the shuffle of late-in-the-year holidays. Hidden between Halloween and Christmas, it’s not unusual to see Thanksgiving as an inconsequential midway point between the other two holidays, rather than the wonderful day it is in its own right.

Don’t get me wrong: I love buying gifts and decorating for Christmas, and there’s still a big part of me that regrets not being able to dress up on Halloween night and go trick-or-treating. But Thanksgiving has a special place in my heart, and it always will.

Halloween is about being, if for only one evening, something you aren’t. Thanksgiving celebrates how much we care about each other, just for being who and what we are. Christmas is a time to buy gifts and make people smile. On Thanksgiving, the smiles come just from spending time with those you love.

So this Thanksgiving, don’t forget how important the day truly is. Maybe you can even send your friends and loved ones free ecards from gotfreecards.com. Our animated e-cards are the perfect ways to say “I love you, and I’m thankful for you being in my life.”

Celebrating Birthdays During the Holidays

My daughter was born the day before Thanksgiving. To my mind, the next day was the most joyous day of Thanksgiving I had ever experienced. As the years passed, however, I often felt that her birthday celebration was lost somewhere between the turkey, the football and the anticipation of shopping.

We do our best now to set aside a specific time and place for a party or family get-together. We know that it is important to separate the holidays from her special day.

This advice was passed on to me, as well, by a dear friend, whose birthday falls a mere ten days before Christmas. As she was growing up, her parents took great pains to ensure that the anniversary of her birth wasn’t overshadowed by the holidays. I, too, refrained from combining Christmas and birthday gifts into one.

Everyone has friends and family members who have holiday birthdays. It’s so easy for us to forget or ignore the birthdays during this whirlwind time of shopping, parties and gifts. But it’s not difficult to find an inexpensive, quick way to remind that person with a November or December birthday that you care. Just look to GotFreeCards.com for the perfect birthday e-card! From humorous, to serious, light-and-sweet to generous, the selection is superb! And the free birthday e-card means you will save a bit more cash to spend on their Christmas present!

Thanksgiving- going through the Motions

Everyone knows the routine on Thanksgiving: you get together with family members, some of whom you won’t see again until next Thanksgiving, you all sit around a table, eat a nice dinner, and talk about all the things you’re thankful for.

Now, I don’t know about you, but I sometimes feel like I’m just going through the motions on Thanksgiving. If you really want to show your loved ones that you’re truly thankful for their being in your lives, why not send them send them free ecards from gotfreecards.com?

Thanksgiving isn’t really one of those holidays that we usually associate with giving cards, so if your friend or family member checks their e-mail and sees that you’ve sent them a free e-card from gotfreecards.com, they’ll know you’re thinking of them—and not just going through the motions.

Listen: it’s not about the money. It’s about showing people that you truly care—that you truly are thankful for them.