These Aussie besties have been exchanging the same birthday card for over 60 years

A pair of best friends from Down Under had no idea the sweet tradition they began more than 60 years ago would end up breaking a world record one day.

Lynley Lambert and Jeanette Graham (both Australia) have claimed the title for longest birthday card exchange with a total of 61 years.

It all started back in March 1963 when Lynley sent Jeanette a card for her birthday.

The message within the card suggested they should share it, so when December rolled around, Jeanette sent it back to Lynley.

Lynley and Jeanette now, with the card

And ever since then, it’s gone back and forth, with the ladies adding the year each time to keep track of their lifelong friendship.

The Scottish-themed card features a drawing of a rabbit wearing a tartan hat and holding a giant pencil.

The front reads: “Birthday greetings between close friends!

“This birthday card brings wishes as bonnie as can be…”

It continues on the inside: “And my name is signed in pencil (‘tis the thrifty way, you see)

“When my day comes, erase the name and sign your name instead and we’ll send this greetin’ back and forth for many years ahead!”

It ends with: “Happy birthday and a bonnie, bonnie year”.

Jeanette, now 84, and Lynley, now 80, were teenagers when they met.

Through their careers, boyfriends, marriages and becoming mothers, one thing has remained constant – their exchange of that same birthday card.

The ladies, who live about 30 minutes away from each other in Perth, explained that in 1960, Lynley and her family moved into a home opposite where Jeanette lived and  they became friends. 

“The friendship was maintained from then onwards, through marriage and then children,” they said.

Exchanging the card each birthday has “saved a lot of money over the years,” they say, although Jeanette complains she has to keep it safe for longer each year than Lynley does.

Back in 1993, Jeanette, who used to work as a shorthand typist, reached out to Guinness World Records to ask if the card she’d exchanged with Lynley, a former ledger keeper, could qualify for a record, although at the time, they were a long way off claiming the title.

Lynley and Jeanette in 1963

Now that their friendship is officially record-breaking, Lynley said: “Both of us are very excited and waiting to show our certificate to friends and family.”

The ladies plan to keep sending the card to each other, although they admit they’re becoming increasingly worried that it’ll get lost in the post one year.

This isn’t the first time their tradition has been in the news either, with their story featuring in a column by Ien Findlay in newspaper The West Australian in 1993.

He wrote of them at the time: “These great friends have been exchanging the same card for 30 years, or 60 birthdays between them.”

He adds: “So through boyfriends and marriages and motherhood the pair have been sending the card for all of this time. They think it might be a record. I would not argue.”

It may not have been at the time, but it is now!

Here’s to many more years of birthday card exchanging.

If you love watching records being broken you should check out our Records Weekly series on YouTube…