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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

AIBU to ask people to put the Christmas Round Robin letters they receive on

91 replies

PeriodFeatures · 12/12/2013 23:11

this thread so we can all have a good laugh and decide which is the funniest, most tedious etc...

OP posts:
NurseRoscoe · 13/12/2013 00:14

Sorry to sound stupid but what is a round robin letter?

PoppyPanda · 13/12/2013 01:50

What's that?

TheJollyReindeer · 13/12/2013 01:53

Its a general round up of the past year update some people put in cards. Usually printed off and popped inside everyones cards.

Some are really braggy and make people sound like complete arses.

Some are OK.

I am with the OP - I want some funny ones on here.

FracturedViewOfLife · 13/12/2013 01:59

I have only ever got one of these and it was so depressing. It was from someone I didn't know (Christmas card exchange) in America and it was basically a list of what had gone wrong that year and who had gone to hospital/died when. 2 A4 sides of it!

giraffesCantSledge · 13/12/2013 01:59

YANBU I asked this last week too.

LineRunner · 13/12/2013 02:01

They tend to involve wildly inappropriate sharing of personal trivia, such as, 'David's IBS took a turn for the worse in August but he soon had a smile on his face when Amelia took first prize in the village fete's under-12 rock bun bake-off beating her old rival Esme Winthrop.'

Kytti · 13/12/2013 03:43

I did one of these this year, but I've moved a long way away and all my friends know me well enough to know it's a bloody miracle I got the cards written, so they can sod off with a personal message too! :)

Bodicea · 13/12/2013 04:13

Are people really doing these now!? I thought it was an American thing. Do we have to inherit everything they do eventually? It's bad enough we now have school proms!!!

Gooseysgirl · 13/12/2013 04:21

Hahahaha I am watching this thread GrinGrinGrin We are expecting one RR letter and I will duly publish any interesting extracts...

theimposter · 13/12/2013 04:32

We get a dreadful one from an incredibly rich family every year and it has become a special event that I read it to the family complete with posh voices and other ad lib bits. It seems they never spend more than 2 weeks without going on holiday, their children are more gifted than Stephen Hawking and they have done more travel than Michael Palin (but only on posh yachts)

WaffilyVersatile · 13/12/2013 07:15

My OH's uncle and aunt have done this each year for the last 11yrs telling us all about their lovely holidays and crash pad in London and the degrees they have acquired or the horses they have bought... but as his aunt passed away in march quite suddenly and their daughter has been shunned by her father because she has developed a drinking problem since her Mums death (he is also not talking to me because I couldn't keep quiet when he and a few others were slagging her off and told him I thought he needed to put his daughter before his own grief and that I was disgusted by their lack of support)

TheJollyReindeer · 13/12/2013 07:23

Bodicea I don't think it's that new or modern. I am in my 40s and recall as a 10/11yo my mum having a good chuckle or choice words about some we used to receive. Grin
I love going to my mums house at this time of year and reading the few she still gets.

y will share the good bits with you all.Grin

Rollermum · 13/12/2013 07:29

I got one yesterday from Canada. It is a nice way to hear their news but it always makes me feel a bit crap when they seem so together, holidaying, smiley photos.

mewmeow · 13/12/2013 07:29

Ydnbu ! Me and mum used to get a few of these when I lived at home. How we chuckled (probably because we're a pair of jealous cynical misers, but never mind, gave us a good laugh at the time).

SatinSandals · 13/12/2013 07:35

I don't know why they are so hated. Do you really expect people to have time to individually write? I get them but they are from friends that I have known for years and years and of course I want to hear their news.
Blogs and bloggers are far, far worse - they inflict it on strangers and for far more than one day a year. The same with social networking.
I have got some, but they wouldn't be remotely interesting or funny- if they were like the ones that you hope to get I would have stopped the friendship long ago. Why keep in touch if you don't like them?

Bodicea · 13/12/2013 07:56

I must not know any rich people or something. The only one I remember my parents getting was one from a family that moved to America so were influenced by their culture I assume. Their kids were suitably saintly doing degrees in geology and saving the world, Joining the peace core etc
I am jealous I don't get any now!

SatinSandals · 13/12/2013 08:12

I get them from people whose ups and downs I followed through the years. If they were just general boasting I would stop the communication.

SatinSandals · 13/12/2013 08:15

I wish someone could tell me why a blog for anyone is OK but a round robin for friends is not OK.
(I could find plenty of examples of dire, self obsessed blogs!)

chemenger · 13/12/2013 08:24

I like to get them. We have many friends who have moved far away that we haven't stayed close to and I enjoy seeing what they have been up to. I want to share in their achievements and see their children grow up even if we don't do much other than exchange cards with them now. I am interested in their lives and I hope they are interested in ours. The alternative is a couple of bland lines in the card which really just confirm that the friendship has petered out. I certainly don't see them as primarily a vehicle for boasting, even if I am envious of their holidays etc.

SatinSandals · 13/12/2013 08:30

Exactly,chemenger. Pointless exchanging cards with no news and a proper letter is better than a couple of scrawled lines. Do people really expect a handwritten personal letter? Most write a few lines on the end. They are people I want to stay in touch with and I like them.

janey68 · 13/12/2013 08:31

I can't stand these. If someone is a close enough friend, then spare the time to write a line or two of a personal message. If they're not then why would they need to hear your news anyway? They're always so self indulgent and often boastful. As are many blogs.

SatinSandals · 13/12/2013 08:36

Mine are not self indulgent and they are not boastful - or they wouldn't be friends. They write a line or two in addition. Expecting them to write the same news over and over again isn't realistic or fair.

NotYoMomma · 13/12/2013 08:38

I dont know anyone who sends these and my life is a bkeaker place due to this Sad

I may write my own

chemenger · 13/12/2013 08:39

I would suggest that if you don't like getting people's news you do them the courtesy of telling them you don't want to get these letters in the future, rather than being snide about them behind their backs. To me that is a bigger sin than wanting to share family news with someone you thought was a friend.