Do godparents send something separate, or just sign the family card?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nBoth are normal, and the difference matters more than people expect. Signing under everybody else puts you in a list; a separate line, even a very short one, says the message came from a specific person. If the card is already going around the table, add your own sentence rather than your name alone. If you would rather send something of your own, a text on the morning does the job \u2014 it arrives before the day fills up, and it does not compete with the cake. What does not work is waiting to see what the parents write and then matching it, because that is how two nearly identical messages end up in one envelope.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The godparent is also an aunt, an uncle or a close family friend. Which relationship does the message come from?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nPick one and stay in it, because stacking titles is what makes a short message read as stiff. In most Canadian families the godparent is somebody who was already close \u2014 a sibling, a cousin, the friend who has been at every dinner for twenty years \u2014 and the child has a name they actually use for that person. Sign the message with the name the child uses, not the formal role, and let the role sit in the background where it has always been. The one place the title earns its keep is a card meant to be kept, where naming it once marks the connection for a child who reads it again years later.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The godchild is too small to have a phone. Who does the birthday message actually go to?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nIt goes to a parent, and it is worth writing as though it will be read out loud, because it will be. Address the child directly and keep the parent out of the sentence \u2014 a line that begins with the parent turns the message into an update between adults with the child listening in. If you want the words kept, send them twice: once as a message on the morning, and once written in a card, which is the version that ends up in a box under a bed. If the parents are reading it out at a party, keep it to one or two lines, or the child is left waiting for it to finish.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There are two godparents. Do you write one message between you, or one each?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nOne each, and it costs nothing to compare them first. Two short lines from two people who each noticed something different are worth far more than a joint sentence signed twice, and whoever receives them can tell which is which. The only thing worth coordinating is content: if you both open by saying you are proud and both close by asking when they are visiting, the second message reads as an echo. A quick check of who is saying what, then write your own. If one of you is far more comfortable with this than the other, let the shorter message stay short rather than padding it out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n