To utterly hate those self appreciating, smug Christmas Round robbins

[pigletmania]

You know the ones that begin with "As another year draws to an end, I find myself sitting trying to find a few mins, to tell you how many wonderful holidays I have been on, and what gifted little children Jonny and Jane are blah blah blah, bahhhh humbug

YABU - I like getting the few that we receive - although DH tends to laugh at the one from my brother which can be a tad boasty . And I grant you that some folks can go into a little too much detail. I like the ones with piccies best

I think they're generally quite festive - and hope folks won't take any offense if we're not quite so organised - it doesn't mean I don't like getting yours !

My MiL gets one every year and they really are vomit inducing!

I have sent one every year since I had children
it goes to family and friends who are not on facebook
many of my family are over 3000 miles away
christmas letters are the way to ensure that when we do get to meet up we talk about new things, not just play catch up

some of the Californian ones I get are a corkers though
cousins doing peace and conflict studies degrees while setting up vegan co ops for financiers could not be made up

I'm so jealous. I don't get any! My mum gets one or two and saves them for me so we can guffaw over them together. Bonding, innit.

Well, all I can say, is you lot must have awful friends if you hate RRs so much..

I LOVE receiving them.

Having moved house a lot, I have friends all over the country who we rarely see now. One of the highlights of Christmas is catching up with their news. I WANT to hear what their children are up to. OK some are geniuses or stars of the 'first 11', but so what.

Well said, Greenshadow! We have moved all over the country and the best part of Christmas is catching up with old friends. I really can't see why people keep up with those they can't stand-or why they have such dreadful friends in the first place.

Thanks Exotic.
While I agree with those who say a personal letter would be better - it's just not realistic to expect someone to write separately to all their friends.

exoticfruits Relatives ? The friends you don't choose for yourself !

I accidentally opened one the other day for the people who used to live here (well over a year ago, no forwarding address). It made me a bit sad that these people had sent all their news to someone who hadn't bothered to tell them they had moved (then again, they didn't bother to tell their child's school either so I shouldn't be surprised)

I get one every year - from a friend of a friend. She lives the most miserable of lives with an utter twat - one of the most tension-filled people I know.
But the 'wonderful life' RR is a betrayal of her life. I just wish someone who knows her better would call her up and tell how inauthentic it all is.

PiL's received one the other day, not smug but a little bemusing:

'Dear A & B,

Merry Christmas, we're still plodding along. It has been very windy the past few days.

From X & Y'

Luckily my relatives just write nice friendly updates if I haven't seen them-it is unrealistic to expect them to write it all out by hand.
I don't know why they get such hatred and yet people get away with far worse on FB- and writing blogs is even worse. I read a blog (God knows why!) where you get weekly pictures of the meals they ate, the art work the DCs constructed etc all in minute detail-probably they are then people who moan about a RR once a year!

It's the A4 size paper covered artfully with pictures of all the right on 'adventures' said family have had throughout the year that I find a tad niggling.Sorry it is bragging and if we all had pots of money we'd all have gone ski-ing,enjoyed city breaks,paid for our kids to do adventure activities etc,etc.

Mine all go in the compost caddy where upon I drop a nice sloppy tea bag,sadly this gives me far too much satisfaction to be healthy each time I walk past.

Ah... Just receives our rr that's usually all doom and gloom. All positive and a really nice read. What does it say about me that a teeny bit of me was disappointed?

I really like getting these from family and friends, though admittedly not many send them, and I've never had an overtly smug one. The one I had today mostly talked about the various chronic health problems of the sender, and included the memorable line "my hiatus hernia is as well as can be expected, though a scan showed some benign polyps on my stomach lining".

YABU and missing the point. I think they are great, my parents get hundreds its fun to read them. The funniest was when I was a teenager and my parents friends would write their version of their childrens lives (violin lessons, exam grade triumphs etc) whereas we children would know the reality (recreational drug use, shagging of older men etc) about which presumably the doting parents had no clue, or if they did would not share with their middle aged peer group.

I just received MIL's one. I was mentioned in it! And studying hard, appparently. ("Studying what?", asked DH. "How annoying you can be?" say I). Most bemusing.

I had one today that said about how their adult daughter is STILL single, and listed all the reasons why she isn't in a relationship, plus 'jokey' comment about how dismayed her mum is about this. I was mortified for the dd!

I think it is realistic to hope that your friends and family will contact you individually to share their news and to ask about yours. It doesn't have to be at Christmas, of course. The "Round Robin" is not necessary.

My favourite RR of all are the ones that appear, uninvited, without a return address, and intended for previous inhabitants of the property. Such RR one can enjoy to the absolute full, without having to be the slightest bit sensitive to the feelings of the people involved in the mishaps and triumphs of the year just gone.

RR do serve a useful function: when a loved one has died, or had a horrendous accident, or something. Then, it is a way of keeping in touch with friends and family who care about you and about that person, but without having to write the ghastly news out umpteen times, trying to find a way of softening the blow each time. That really is a useful function of a RR letter.

But the boasting letters? Boast away, distant relatives and acquaintances. It's actually quite a self-esteem boost to reflect on how genuinely contented I am with the quiet and non-bragworthy achievements of my nearest and dearest, while gasping with mirth at the shininess of your exploits.

YANBU. We tend to get round robins by email which I think is worse then getting a written one.

ha - my family do the opposite - 'I'm ill and have this and that... so and so had to have an operation... so and so died, yada yada....' or they go to the other extreme and I got one the other day which sounded really bitter as the woman was just whingeing about how horrible it was being stuck at home with preschool children - terrible. I was cringeing reading it.

My friend and I get one of the smug ones each year from a 'friend' who has completely dropped us, except for the round robin. My friend and I are her daughter's godmothers, but our DS's (her's with dyspraxia and mine with ASD) didn't turn out to be suitable companions for her 'gifted' daughter!

They are cracking, though. I love them. Written in the best third person and full of smugness. "XXX was so busy this year making costumes for the DD's amazingly successful dance competitions that she couldn't possibly fit in a proper job. DS was just too bright for grammar school, but we were delighted he got a place way out of catchment at an excellent comprehensive, and now DD will be able to travel 10 miles to go there also."

Attack of the unnecessary apostrophes there! Her's?

In the recent RR my friend called herself the holiday queen bluch