A card is a gesture, not an essay, and the ones people keep are short. What separates a kept card from a recycled one isn't length or eloquence. It's whether the writer clearly knew which house they were writing about.
The shape that works
Congratulations, then something specific, then a wish. "Congratulations on the new place" is a fine opening precisely because nobody reads it closely. The middle sentence is the one that does the work: the garden they went on about, the fact it took eleven months and three fall-throughs, the commute that's now twenty minutes instead of ninety. Then close with what you actually hope for them in it.
If you don't know them well
Keep it warm and short rather than reaching for intimacy you haven't got. Something like: congratulations on the move, wishing you a very happy first year in the new house. Sign it properly with your full name if it's a colleague, because a card signed with a first name they can't place is a small puzzle nobody wants.
If you know them very well
Then the joke is allowed, and the joke is usually the boxes, the mortgage, or whatever nearly derailed the purchase. A line that makes them laugh in a hallway surrounded by cardboard is worth more than a beautifully phrased wish. Just land it on the move rather than on the house itself, since they have to live in the house.
What not to do
Don't copy a verse off a card in the shop, don't write about your own move, and don't mention what anything cost. If you're stuck, describe the house back to them in one line. People who've just bought somewhere never tire of hearing about it.
The card closes the housewarming. Beside it, how much to spend settles the gift and housewarming etiquette settles the evening. If you want the card and the gift to say the same thing, a new home gift showing the actual house is the version of "this house, specifically" that hangs on a wall.
Written by Craig Fearn, Our House Print. Last updated .
