Don't forget thank you notes!!

My toddler had a bountiful Christmas and was blessed by family and friends with an enormous pile of presents. I'm working hard to make him understand that each gift requires a thank you. He did a pretty good job of thanking people in person (and he told us how much he liked that Santa guy). But today we start our thank you notes. Since he can't really write yet, I came up with a pretty simple idea for a thank you he could participate in last Christmas. His great grandma loved it so we will repeat it this year.

All you need is:

A camera - ideally a phone or tablet for easy printing

A white board or chalk board - this would be so cute with chalk but chalk makes my skin crawl. 

Whiteboard markers or chalk

The gifts

A list of gifts and gifters to be sure you include everyone 

Ideally two adults

A bag of m&ms is optional but an effective bribe to get the photos done in one session 

Blurry example photo of toddler holding gift in front of tree with whiteboard sign.

We set the camera up in front of the tree and moved the camera around to find the best possible angle. We also turn on all the lights in the room and the lamps. Then we simply handed him each gift and adjusted the thank you on the white board as needed. We tried to add special notes where possible too. Be sure to snap a few photos of each to give you the most possible options to select from - we had more than a few bad ones.Then upload the pictures to your favorite photo processor and have them printed. On the back of the photos you can even add a hand print and the year for an extra special touch. 

What do you think? What have you found to be good thank you notes from toddlers?