AIBU to really dislike Round Robin updates in Christmas Cards?

[ShinyRuby]

I mean the printed list of family achievements that some people insist on putting inside their cards. I had one today, a printed A4 sheet from someone who I haven't seen for a number of years. It had a paragraph for each member of the family detailing all their achievements over the year. I just found it all so very boastful & braggy. Obviously there's never anything negative &, reading between the lines, the achievements seemed to be no more than any average family. I know the letters go to literally everybody she knows. I can't see the need but maybe IABU. Anyway, it went straight into the recycling!

We get a couple, one from an old colleague of DP’s who now lives in America, and the other one from friends of my late husband. One year it detailed the species of apple trees they’d found in the orchard of their new house!

I do tend to write to people at Christmas in the cards but I do it individually. It might be on Christmas paper this year though

Aren't they just an old-fashioned version of modern-day boastful Facebook feeds? Except the round robin is an annual event whereas Facebook is year round and accompanied by photos.

One year it detailed the species of apple trees they’d found in the orchard of their new house!

I would be really interested in that!

I live for these! So few now though in the FB era.

My family didn’t do them and my parents told me it was because their kids were so brilliant it would make other people feel sad but looking back on the complete absence of achievement I now wonder whether that was really it

Why wouldn't you gnat to know what your friends are up to?

I love hearing the year's news.

We've moved round the country a lot and I find them a great way of catching up with people now too far away to see on a regular basis.
(But then my friends don't tend to be the sort to boast about their nearest and dearest).

My parents get some of these and I make them bring them when they come & stay with us for Christmas as I find them so entertaining, especially the updates on grandchildren. It was a bit awkward when I was busy taking the piss out of them in front of MIL and suddenly realised MIL obviously does one of these herself and had been including similar comments about 15mo DD's amazing achievements in life.

We do one for some family/friends who are not on social media and live very far away. We try to make it positive, but it's not boasty/we have nowt to boast about/and is just to stay in touch with folk.

We include bereavements, jobs, cats etc, just the usual stuff you'd tell someone if you hadn't seen them for a bit.

The only one we got when I was a kid was from a cousin in Australia - I feel bad now about the details we laughed at - they were more of a big deal than I thought at the time.

We lived in hope of something outlandish happening like 'Luke has found Jesus and joined a commune' but alas.

I get one from my religious maniac aunt which is full of stuff like this.

The year of the referendum she advised us that the EU was the Beast of Babylon, and that Brexit would save our souls. She stopped short of claiming Nigel Farrage was the second coming, but I did wonder where she was going with that.

Another year she talked about her attempts to resurrect her son from the dead. Tragi-comic.

We got one from somebody who forgot we have 2 DC! This is LOs 3rd Christmas.

My BIL used to do these, all written in the third person, like a report on how awesome and great their family is. We found it fucking hilarious and so did the rest of the extended family.
Not sure if he's stopped doing it or just doesn't send us one anymore.

YABU I have never seen one and want one. How do I find people who do this?

Had one from DH's cousin last year saying sadly his dad had died abroad, after which they discovered said dad's second family of wife children and grandchildren in that country, mostly acquired whilst cousin's late mother had been alive...

I love reading the round robin letters my parents receive in cards and I wish I was witty enough to write my own humorous cards to people.

We get one every year from someone who's quite religious so it's all about church going ons and how good their children are at education and sport and music. So one year we get the usual "George has become an elder" "Dixie has produced a magnificent Easter play" "Humphrey got his grade 7 clarinet" "we all went on a fantastic holiday" "the apples made amazing crumbles" oh and "Gracie had a baby in November so we're super proud grandparents"

What??????? Is Gracie not 16 and the next poet laureate in waiting and been proposed as the first female pope???

I loved that one mostly because they could have missed the letter that year but they did tell everyone and totally support that child and love their grandchild, which we now hear in every letter since!

TBH I thought they had gone out of fashion because of social media.

These days people seem to plaster their families doings all over Facebook or whatever all year round. Makes me nostalgic for the old Round Robin.

I actually like getting them.

What is this round Robin nonsense?

@ShinyRuby I think we know the same
Family. They've sent us a 'newsletter' every single year for 30 years or more.
Does their surname begin with B!??

@ThistleAmore
Does your round robin family surname begin
With B?

I must be the dullest person ever because I’d like to read about the species of apples found in the orchard.

And we still get round robins from old friends and enjoy them.

😳😰😨😥

My mum still gets a couple of these and I love reading them!

Victoria Wood did a very funny bit of stand up all about these.

I love round robins but we only get from the god bothers these days. Better than Faceache and I hate getting cards with no news in them, what's the point. I'm going retro and sending one this year!

Haven’t had one for years, I thought they had gone out of favour. It really depends on the letter. We used to get a lovely newsy update from old neighbours, clearly a round robin but it was entertaining to read, certainly not boastful. On the other hand, DH’s best friend and his DW used to send one written in the third person, as though crafted by a ghost writer. That was weird!

It’s almost Friday
Does the newsletter family starting with B start with Banis by any chance from a town in the north ? 😂😂
We get them too

I love RRs. We lived abroad when I was a child - many many decades ago! - and they were the norm then.

I still get a couple. One from an old college friend whose DH's job has taken them living all round the world - and they've had a fascinating life. The other from a rather eccentric acquaintance whose RRs are delightfully batshit!

A few years ago, on a thread about amusing RRs, I discovered that another MNer (who I know I don't know) also knows my old college friend as she repeated word-for-word, including correct names, a sentence from that year's RR

I think they are funny, you could have a points scoring game bit like MN bingo - swanky new house extension 10 points, discovering religion 100 points, promotion 2 points etc etc.

Save them all up and have a slightly inebriated post xmas lunch bit of fun with them. Randomly dole the RRs out and the person with the most points wins.

of course we don't really do this