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Original poster

Is anyone else still sending Round Robin Christmas letters

123 replies

Iwasneveragoddess · 20/12/2019 21:18

Or is it just my sister, speaking about the whole family in the third person.....?

God I hate them ....

OP posts:
SpruceTree · 20/12/2019 22:56

I like the letters/family updates. At least they are making an effort. I hate the whole "we can't be bothered to send cards this year - we are having a gin instead" thing.

raspberrymolakoff · 20/12/2019 22:58

I a half page to people who we haven't seen and aren't on social
media. It means if we suddenly find ourselves near them we feel in touch enough to look them up. I had a day to kill in Glasgow a few years ago and contacted my second cousin (our mums were not only 1st cousins but very close friends). We had a long lunch and lots of laughs. A year or two later she was on a cruise which stopped near where I live and my husband and I met them for a meal.

We get one annually which is densely typed over 2 A4 pages describing a relative's life.... to the curtains in a premier inn and the size of the room. I'm ashamed to say we look forward to it and find it very funny.

I'm frustrated every year by the ones who you haven't contacted all year which just say "love from" a note on the back of the envelope would suffice.

andadietcoke · 20/12/2019 23:05

SiL's had me gobsmacked this year. Two sides of A4 in what I'd guess was size 10 font. Possibly smaller. Incredibly passive aggressive at times, and ridiculously boring at others.

BertieBotts · 20/12/2019 23:11

My aunt used to send one. I always had a snigger at it but DH was no fun and just wanted to take it at face value and say it was nice. I don't think I have told her we have moved Blush in my defence anyone my age doesn't have an address book and we just text each other to ask for the other person's address when we need it (which is rarely) so I never think to update people when we move and tbh I quite forget people have address books.

Heatingson · 20/12/2019 23:12

Oooh we never get a round robin but my parents used to get them. I loved them. They were hilarious. Entirely unfettered bragging. All my parents friends had very high achieving children...us not so much Grin

LittleReindeer · 20/12/2019 23:13

They are so tedious. If we talk so rarely that you feel the need to send me a round robin, then I probably don’t care what you’ve been doing anyway.

BertieBotts · 20/12/2019 23:14

I mean, I forget people have address books and therefore expect addresses to stay the same or be notified if they have changed.

MistyCloud · 20/12/2019 23:18

@Iwasneveragoddess OMG no I have NEVER sent one! They are bloody awful, and are often sent by someone who pops a Christmas card in the envelope too, with a pic of their children printed on the front. cringe

Craftycorvid · 20/12/2019 23:23

Yup. I got one today. Three-and-a-half sides of A4. Really impressive amount of detail. Someone (perfectly pleasant) I haven’t actually seen in many years. I do send short ‘how’s life?’ notes that are personalised, but the obviously photocopied jobs sent to everyone are intriguing. It’s useful to consider what you’ve achieved in a year but it’s also perhaps more for your own private reflection? Also, I do miss the really loopy ones certain mad relatives used to send Grin

steppemum · 20/12/2019 23:30

I think this depends so much on your friendship group.
I have lived in lots of places and have friends all over the place. You soon realise that you can't actually keep up with everyone, especially when they live a long way away, but you are still fond of them and like to hear their news.
So we send christmas letters. Now most come on email, but they aren't cringy or self congratulatory, they are just some news and pics of the last year. Now they usually have more pictures than writing.

Dolorabelle · 20/12/2019 23:37

I LOVE Round Robins. Really love hearing people's news.

RedRec · 20/12/2019 23:44

I get three of them every year from people I really like. I love getting them and reading them.

Decidewhattobeandgobeit · 21/12/2019 03:51

I remember my parents getting them from friends and family when I was a child and thinking they were cringe then!

fligglepige · 21/12/2019 03:52

Has there been a Janet and Roy thread this year?

Limpshade · 21/12/2019 04:15

My mum still gets these and it's been a great pleasure of mine to read them all whenever I visit at Christmas - I think they are absolutely hilarious (she does not).

My all-time fave was a strangely moany one wherein the writer had been to Mauritius but had been "forced" to spend the week at the pool because she "didn't like all the sand" Grin

anxioussue · 21/12/2019 04:47

I would never send one even if I had anybody who'd be interested but I would love reading them but I've never received one.

Buyitinbamboo · 21/12/2019 05:22

No but my MIL receives one every year from a friend who moved abroad before I was born. She makes me read it even though I've never met them and its 2 sides of A4.

My mum thought about sending one this year as we were the only cousins in the family that hadn't fucked up in some spectacular way and shes feeling smug.

bengalcat · 21/12/2019 05:33

I put a handwritten one into Aunts Christmas cards every year as I rarely/never see them unless there’s a wedding/funeral / party.

trixiebelden77 · 21/12/2019 05:55

We get them from a few relatives.

The self-absorbed ones who describe getting ‘more involved with the golf club’ as ‘stressful’ or ‘really out of my comfort zone’.

They are quite amusing.

thepeopleversuswork · 21/12/2019 07:44

constantinoplegardener hand-written letters probably better, yes.

I like the idea of detailed letters keeping people in touch and if they are personal they are probably quite moving.

I just dislike the smugness that often goes with them: they rapidly become a long list of after school clubs and exam grades. At best that is dull and at worst it could actually be quite upsetting or triggering if someone on the receiving end was going through a breakup or one of their children was seriously ill. I just think they are usually very me me me and tone deaf.

VeryLittleOwl · 21/12/2019 08:29

We get one from BIL every year, one page of A4, size 8 font, mocked up to look like the front page of a newspaper.

PoultryBallot · 21/12/2019 08:37

I bloody love them, never had my own my my mil gets several and its been a Christmas highlight for me for years, it's even more enjoyable now mil needs me to read them aloud as her eyesight is poor. The rest of her family find it embarrassing but I love putting on voices and emphasising the important bits (We had our third holiday in the caravan and it was only May)

wondering7777 · 21/12/2019 08:44

I LOVE these (for the cringe/amusement factor obviously!) but sadly they seem to be dying out. If I do get one in a Christmas card I regard it as a real treat!

TwoOddSocks · 21/12/2019 08:56

The only one I got wasn't actually bad (it was from a relative who was bereaved early this year just letting people know how he's been doing). The old school let me show off about what we've done this year I haven't received in years I thought people showed off on Facebook now.

StCharlotte · 21/12/2019 09:04

I've sent a couple when we've moved house but otherwise I scribble a few lines to the few who aren't on Facebook.

We used to get two. One from friends where invariably one of them had given up this year's toxic job but even they've given up this year. The other was from a couple, the husband of whom was in the navy so there was a bit about [cutesy nickname for wife] continuing to be the "engine room" of the family - and their gifted and talented children natch.