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

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

I have moved around a lot so I get lots and I write them, I do personalise them it is easy to cut and paste.

My views chemenger. Why ridicule on here? Why not be polite and ask them not to send in future.

People are funny. I suspect the ones who ridicule round robins the loudest are the same people who force everyone they have ever met to share in the dull minutiae of their lives via Facebook.

Can't see the difference myself.

I got a Christmas card/round robin combo in the mail today from an old friend and was actually quite chuffed - it's the first real mail I've received in ages. I figure I'd rather get her year summarized in a Christmas card than over the year in 140 character chunks or whatever on Facebook/Twitter

I have to say, I love hearing my friends' and family's news but I have to assume that those who don't know what we are on about have never received one of the truth god-awful self-obsessed ones. Believe me, it's a different beast entirely from the ones that update you on family!

Exactly celestial, we inflict one family picture per year on our friends, not 10 a day.

I don't know why you assume that celestial

It's all part of the same thing... People not being bothered enough to make personal interactions or messages, but happy to detail the minutiae of their lives on FB, blogs or round robins to everyone. It's lazy and self indulgent- writing something without any thought for your audience, and whether they are a close friend who might actually be interested in your news and would appreciate a bit of effort, or whether they are someone you hardly know. It's just putting it all out there in a lazy way IMO

I agree that 99.9% of blogs are far worse.....but the difference is you don't have to read a blog.

The thing with RRs is that the writer assumes that the reader actually gives a fuck that Junior is now reading Book 2 of Harry Potter all on his little own. (this is a direct reference to the RR from a uni friend of mine where she writes the RR as if it's Junior himself writing them....."I am a big boy of 7 now and Mummy and Daddy are insane very proud of the fact that I can read chapter books!" )

I certainly wouldn't dream of inflicting photos as well. Good lord, I'm not even that interested in pics of my own family, let alone anyone else's. Photographs are strictly for grandparents. (it's the first rule of how not to be PFB)

Celestial- I rather imagine the opposite. as I also imagine the supporters on here of the RR have just had the scales fall from their eyes and realised how much printer ink is being wasted each year with their own......

Anyway, where are the funny ones about Derek's IBS??????

Chemenger I think it's ok to share these because most of the authors are boastful smug bores

I used to get one via XHs family and it was just like those mentioned full of academic achievement and ski trips we never heard about the alcoholic husband or messy affairs

I think this is quite mean, actually. I get a card from a relative of my Mum every year and there's always loads of information in it about people I don't know/have never met/will probably never meet. It's a bit odd, but why would I feel the need to share any of that on here and sneer at this distant relative of mine?

I feel bad because I don't take the time to write back. I certainly don't sit and laugh at her.

My friends, family and I are far to disorganised to round robin letters! They would arrive in April!

Heartbroken- giving news about people is different.....you need to receive one of these totally-up-myself RRs to fully appreciate why they are an abomination.

They really are like a year's worth of Me me me FB statuses rolled into one paragraph. You know the sort of status where someone makes out they have a perfect family and they all sit down on a Sunday to an organic chicken and then the children play in front of the open fire with their eco-wooden toys? And you know it's all bollocks? That's the RR ethos.

My mum gets one of the massively-up-themselves ones every year. My favourite quote of this year's: "Gary has spent the year improving the lives of others by working hard to keep the water flowing through everybody's taps."

Gary is a plumber, love, we know what that is. Calm down.

On the other hand, I got the mother of my housemate from uni to add me to her RR list, as theirs is genuinely lovely and funny to read.

I get a couple which I rather look forward to! People I've known a VERY long time but we are all busy and so don't always catch up as much as we like.

BTW the cards have a personal message too.

you whiny lot.

I love getting them.

I don't understand why people mock them.

We obviously move in the wrong circles, maybe its because we don't have rich or pretentious friends, ours just go on holiday, change jobs, get/lose pets and have children that go to school and sometimes do exams, in a very normal way, and share that with us. We do have one from a couple who write in the third person about themselves, which is slightly odd, but its still nice to know what they have been up to.
Is it surprising that people don't inflict the less happy parts of their lives on you? I'd rather hear someone has had fun skiing than how many empty whisky bottles they have stashed at the back of the cupboard, to be honest. After all, if poor Derek tells you about his IBS that's wrong too.
I would advise those who don't like the letters to throw them away without reading them and stop sending cards back to those people that you don't care about. Problem solved.

Snigger at Gary the plumber

We don't get any, most disappointing

I have always wanted a round robin and never received one.

I might send one out of spite next year.

The closest thing we get is a photo montage style moon pig card from BIL and SIL in Australia showing off the beach, the new house and the children winning stuff at school.

Oddly, this year, instead of cards being addressed to Sarah, DH and DS they all seem to be arriving addressed to The Fucks.

We seem to have become a collective and I don't like it.

Actually, if they really did come with "The Fuck" written on the envelope I'd think it was hilarious, but our real surname isn't quite so exciting.

I did get one addressed to Her Majesty Queen Sarah of Sweden though, which made me laugh.

No Chemenger- the point is very definitely that these people aren't rich or pretentious. They don't even do it out of spite, to be pretentious. They really think people care. And oh my, do they ever tell you their problems. When they aren't talking about Junior and his child prodigy violin status, it is all gloom and doom and who is dying/dead/been diagnosed with something Very Nasty.

Drank - if you know it will be like this why read it? If you don't care about them bin it without a thought, don't waste energy moaning about it. Be glad they don't do what my aunt does and phone once a year with the annual round up of doom and gloom, never less than an hour, seldom mentions anyone I have ever set eyes on.

Oh, I'm like Sarah and never get them.

My Mum gets a couple (invariably full of dead people and bowel disorders) and my uni friend gets the one about Junior being able to read Harry Potter.

We have had a couple (which I'm not putting on here as Sod's law is I will get caught out) but can anyone answer a question?

We got one today and it said

"John" is working in his new firm.

That led me to believe that "sarah" was writing it but then it said "

" sarah" is doing a wonderful job with the house

So who the bloody hell is writing it, cos if it's sarah she sounds like a bit of an arse

Ah, t'is one of the rules of the RR to augment your self importance by writing in the 3rd person. knobbers

I have just spent a happy 10 mins reminiscing www.mumsnet.com/Talk/Christmas/1104159-Woo-hoo-I-have-received-the-most-wanktastic-round-robin?pg=1