To enjoy writing and receiving Christmas letters

[Fairyfield]

I do not do facebook, instagram etc, so once a year it is my chance to catch up with family and friends via a Christmas letter.

I love receiving other people's news and miss not getting a letter and just getting a line in a card. I don't tend to send cards now and just email friends our Christmas wishes.

I know some people hate letters as it is other people gushing about their children's achievements. I have very few friends who do this.

Does anyone else like a Christmas letter?

I'm an utter hypocrite as I do enjoy a good Christmas letter, but have just scrawled a few lines in everyone's card as I couldn't be bothered doing much more.

No, I don’t. I have social media and get to see what everyone is up to whenever I want.

You sound rather jealous IMO.

OP I think your idea sounds nice.

I suppose for me, writing the letter is a time to reflect on our year- a bit like journalling but on one side of A4 with a couple of photos. I have the letters from years gone by and enjoy seeing the changes in us all .

I only missed on year, when I lost 3 close family members, including both my grandparents a week apart. I felt I had nothing happy to share that year. I explained that the following year.

Ah @Fairyfield I wish I was as Zen as you . To me the cards are one of my least favourite aspects of Christmas- most of which I now see as a chore. I mean I love the actual day itself, but not so much the card writing or present wrapping.

The highlight of our Christmas is receiving the bragging letter from one of my parents' friends! Brings great Christmas joy ad mirth to all who read it. You are not unreasonable to send a round robin and to enjoy writing it, but the recipients may not enjoy it in the way you might have hoped.

Oh I love Christmas letters! I wish more people did it, as I feel too self conscious to do it myself unless everyone else does! A family friend has started doing it for the past few years. I already know what goes on in her life, but I still love reading the letters

Reading Simon Hoggart's collections of terrible Christmas letters is a part of my December warm up 😀. As long as you avoid those pitfalls, which it sounds like you're aware of, I think they're actually quite nice.

I do fb & keep up with most family members & friends on there.
But I have a few friends from uni days & further back who are not on social media.
I do a "round robin" letter to them every year, & really look forward to getting letters in my cards from them too. They are the only people I actually send cards to now.
I have copies of my letters to them going back years, & actually sat & read them all the other night...they are like a journal of our lives.

I'd enjoy it if I received one but I have no temptation to write one. It would just be another chore to add to the endless list of Christmas chores. In the depths of winter I just want to curl up and wait for the sun to come back.

We don't send a Christmas round robin but are the recipients of two. The first is the usual "Tarquin has just been headhunted for an internship at a leading city firm" type - hilarity ensues, to the extent that my siblings who aren't on the recipient list beg to see this year's edition. The second is really disturbing - written by the wife of DH's friend, full of direct criticism of their adult childrens' lifestyle choices eg moving city, not getting a better paid job and renting a flat with BF! For context, DH hasn't seen this guy since age 12, was tracked down via SM, we've never met his wife or the kids she slates. Really depressing IMO. Your jolly round up of family news sounds lovely, OP (provided you manage to list relatives accomplishments without sounding too smug - I fear that's where I'd fail 😁)

I'd find it hilarious and utterly cringworthy if I received one. Basically I'd love it for the wrong reasons. It's the type of thing I imagine my FIL doing.

I love a Christmas letter! For me it's not so much a way of communicating in place of something else, more a way of making a plain Christmas card personal and heartfelt.
I write a little update on big things I've done that year, praise (or commiserate) big things that have happened to the recipient, and mentioned any shared experience. Something like (in very short): I started my new job in August and am really enjoying it, also enjoyed my holiday to France in May. Pleased to hear your DS is getting on well in his first year at university, but still think of your DM since you lost her in February. It was so lovely that we got to meet in the summer this year, we always have such a great time together. Let's do that again soon.
Usually written on the inside of the Christmas card rather than a separate letter.

Hmmm I have not got a Christmas letter for a decade and a half probably, but I wouldn't mind one, as long as it's not one of those naff and tawdry 'round robin' type letters... The ones that have the same shit 'copied and pasted' to everyone the writer is sending letters to, bragging about their holiday in the Algarve, little Daniel's amazing sports achievement, Hannah's brilliant A level results, their new car, and their backpacking trip around South America in the summer. Naff as fuck! 🙄

To add: a lot of people think it's a bit lame, but to me, constantly journaling your life on social media is worse than a once-a-year round up.

I love receiving Christmas letters, I don't do a 'Round Robin' one myself but always right a few lines. Like others I don't do Social Media, except Mumsnet, so it is a lovely opportunity to read about what people have done in the last year. And fortunately none of my friends are 'bragging' types.
I genuinely love writing Christmas cards ... it's one of my favourite parts of Christmas, carols in the background, a Christmas candle burning and a glass of mulled wine - my favourite sort of evening.
But we are all different .. I can't imagine watching a Christmas film like Elf or similar and 'snuggling up on the sofa with my DC' and hot chocolate. My idea of an utterly tedious time. Actually I don't think I've ever had to watch a children's Christmas film and now DS is 21 I hopefully won't ever have to .

Ragwort
Maybe grandchildren in the distant future.

I love them.
My mum’s friends from when she was at university in the 1960s always do them and we make a beeline for them when we go back home at Christmas.
One family was always buying old buildings to do up, another has a rare breed farm and sends detailed accounts of births and deaths among the livestock…

I have more friends who write funny ones than annoying show off ones so I am glad they are keeping the tradition alive.

sounds ... hopefully I can delegate to DH, am sure he will be a doting grandfather!

TheCountess that reminds me of a Round Robin my mother received last year, she is 90 and her old school friend (male) is similar age .. he had recently been widowed but he wrote in rather too much graphic detail of how delighted he was that he now had a girlfriend ......

I dislike getting Christmas cards (clutter), so don’t send them. A letter would turn up my level of annoyance.

I do! I tend to write in the card, but everyone who gets a card posted to them has a minimum of a few chatty lines, usually a couple of paragraphs. I have some friends who I only hear from at Christmas, who just sign their names on the card (not even a ‘dear x’), which feels a bit pointless really! I love getting cards with even a short message inside,

We don't do social media, so do do a letter.
Bah humbug the lot of you.

Total cringe.

Some friends of my DH don't do a letter, they do a bloody newspaper, full of their triumphs and accolades, headlines and articles about how fabulous their life is, accompanied by photos of them in various exotic locations. I use it to light the fire. They are so damn smug and make me so damn jealous.

As for cards and letters, I do neither. I donate card money to the local foodbank and social media informs everyone else about my wonderful, joyful, fulfilling life