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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

AIBU to really dislike Round Robin updates in Christmas Cards?

160 replies

ShinyRuby · 05/12/2018 19:25

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!

OP posts:
cushioncuddle · 07/12/2018 07:26

My mum gets sent one and they list everything they've done month by month. They basically send her their old calendar!

Underpressureidiot · 07/12/2018 07:29

We got when where the mum revealed she was making her four kids share one advent calendar. My mum was open mouthed in shock.

Roystonv · 07/12/2018 07:33

Happy to admit I send one with a few photos to the few elderly relatives and friends of my mum that are left. So few letters are sent nowadays and it is nice to know someone has remembered you but I do try to personalise a bit and allude to things that are part of our joint history.

Queenofthedrivensnow · 07/12/2018 08:03

On the whole yanbu but my aunt and uncle dot it. They are childless and very quaint. They send very odd gifts too. My uncle is infirm and won't live much longer. I see their letters and gifts differently now. It's just old fashioned.

5foot5 · 07/12/2018 08:12

I do try to personalise a bit and allude to things that are part of our joint history.

Same here. I have a body of the letter that goes to everyone but then add a more personal opening and closing paragraph to each.

And I do love getting other peoples to me. I don't bother much with Facebook, Instagram or whatever so I think the annual catch up is great.

DarklyDreamingDexter · 07/12/2018 08:14

Haven't received one for a good few years, which is a shame as I bloody love them! Not for the reasons the sender hopes though...they are usually so boastful and up themselves they are comedy gold! Xmas Grin

Bowchicawowow · 07/12/2018 08:20

We get one every year and I love it.

GETTINGLIKEMYMOTHER · 07/12/2018 08:28

Hardly get any now - they've had such a bad press.

We once had one from someone who had once been a good friend but who we hadn't seen for years - it was full of so much appalling brag and swank I refused ever to send them a card again. Dh wanted to carry on but I said OK, as long as you write it yourself - which meant sod all chance.

We met them a few years later at a mutual friend's house - the person asked why we'd cut what little contact we had! Wish I'd been brave enough to say it was because of that ghastly braggy round robin.

Then dh invariably gets one from an elderly Canadian relative - 2 x crammed sides of A4 in a minute font, with every last detail of everything about people I don't know, not to mention her multiple holidays each year. I can never BA to read it any more.

LoniceraJaponica · 07/12/2018 08:42

Our families and friends are scattered, and the older generation aren't on social media, so I do send out a family newsletter to a handful of people. It is full of general family news, not travelogue list of expensive holidays abroad (one of our friends does this), nor is it a boastful list of DD's achievements.

OreliaRoc · 07/12/2018 08:50

Mitchell & Webb have a sketch about replying to a round robin (hopefully the link works!)

Toddlerteaplease · 07/12/2018 09:11

My friend sends one every year. Two pages of closely typed writing. It's the highlight of Christmas! HmmConfused

Scotinoz · 07/12/2018 09:22

I love them, Christmas wouldn't be the same without them!

In all fairness though, it's the round robins my parents receive. They talk about the fab holidays all the retirees have been on and what their grandchildren are doing. They're all lovely, so actually nice to read. There are a couple which still waffle on about 'the kids', we're all averaging 40 now, how successful they are, how amazing their lives are...they're the best to read 😅

Junkmail · 07/12/2018 10:28

My husband’s family do this and OMG it’s always so cringe. I hate them but I did think of doing one for our family detailing all the dogs’ achievements (three dogs, no kids). Don’t know how that would go down tho 😂

Puffinhead · 07/12/2018 10:36

My best friend and her family moved away last year and her husband is planning on doing this. She is mortified! He said it was either this or allowing him to post more stuff on Facebook (she hates FB and is a very private person) so she conceded but asked to read it before it goes out. She’s now at college and he’d written about that and how she was getting distinctions - she made him cross that out! I’m looking forward to reading it Grin

BlackberryandNettle · 07/12/2018 11:21

I love them, some are amusingly boastful, mostly I just like to read to catch up on what old family friends etc have been doing. Of course, even the most perfect families sometimes have sad years so it's not always happy reading.

BlackberryandNettle · 07/12/2018 11:24

Actually I'm thinking of starting one this year but more to keep as a year on year record for the family than to send out - perhaps some relatives will get a copy. In reality I'll probably be too disorganised to actually sit down and write it!

Talkinpeece · 07/12/2018 17:48

I am in the process of writing mine and will put it in with certain family cards Grin

Valerievalerie · 08/12/2018 18:16

It’s almost Friday
I’m
In suspense
I need to know if it’s the same family !
Heeeeeeelp

Ivegotthree · 08/12/2018 18:19

OMG they are my favourite thing! We read the more boastful ones out loud to each other, wiping the tears from our eyes!

It should be the law that everyone does, but actually then they might be boring. Let the more boastful ones do it and let our seasonal cheer continue!

OlennasWimple · 08/12/2018 18:22

I love the ones which equate the mind-numbingly routine ("We finally decided on the new tiles for the kitchen - we went with classic white again") and the sort of news that shouldn't be relegated to paragraph three of an impersonal letter ("Unfortunately Timmy's cancer came back, and the doctors don't think they can operate this time")

OneStepMoreFun · 08/12/2018 18:29

YABU - they are a source of delight. DSis and I used to nick the best ones when they arrived and put them in each others' stockings. We'd be cackling away on Christmas morning at all the boasts of succesful polytunnels and renewals of faith. But now I find them quite touching. People just want to feel like their lives amount to something, however small.

TheDarkPassenger · 08/12/2018 20:12

I think they’re lovely!

And of course they’re positive, they’re hardly guna write
Rebecca got her a levels in August and in October our James got done for rape. Are they?

Stop being a negative nelly

HettyB · 08/12/2018 21:53

I bloody love these. My parents have some extremely wealthy friends who used to send one every year (I must find out if they still do). It read like a world atlas “We saw in 2018 at the summit of Mt Kilimanjaro... February saw Janet travel to Mozambique to single-handedly build a hospital, while Roy gave a ten-day presentation in Honolulu on how to be smug.... in August, we welcomed two hundred of our dearest friends to our private island...”

MakeAHouseAHome · 08/12/2018 22:13

Tbh sounds like you are jealous of their achievements! Don't do them myself, but like other posters it is a nice way to keep up with people you may not see as often as you would like.

MrsTommyBanks · 08/12/2018 22:51

CTK owned the Janet and Roy's.
Owned them.
I miss her here.