Christmas "round robin" letters? <shudder> Why oh why?

[Bonsoir]

Am I being unreasonable to wish that the government would impose a punitive tax rate on offenders?

'I have moved round the country quite a lot and therefore have friends in numerous locations. I can't maintain close friendships with all of them, but still love to catch up on their news (and let them know ours). Round Robins are great for that. Most of those we recieve aren't boasting - just factual info about what they and their family have been doing throughout the year.'

I agree with Greenshadow, I have moved around a lot and I love hearing from old friends at Christmas. If they don't enclose a letter I cross them off my list-it is pointless just exchanging cards. I only get them from people that I like and so I love hearing all their news. I personalise mine but I have the bulk the same-I just haven't got time to write them from scratch and they are bound to be more or less the same anyway.None of them are boasting-they are just catch up time. It means that if I am in their part of the world I can drop in because I know what is going on in their lives.
You must have some very strange friends-who aren't really friends-if you don't want to hear their news and see some photos.
I don't want to be on Face Book-that seems 10x worse than a round robin!

My granny used to make me write the family round robin from when I was about 8 onwards. It was excruciating.

I feel it has contributed to my dislike of Christmas.

If other people do it, I'm happy for them. But I don't.

It isn't possible to meet up with a lot of mine, but we keep in touch at Christmas. If conditions change we just take up where we left off. I have recently been seeing a friend after a 15 yr old gap and it just the same. When I move I only keep in touch with the people who are real friends and an update at Christmas is all we need. If I am holiday in their area I feel that I could phone them up and meet because we have the contact. I am on Face Book, but I don't use it as it is meant to be used as it seems a complete waste of time.

le queen
"Quite simply, if you have time to compose a lengthy Round-Robin letter at anytime in the weeks up to Christmas you are a social misfit, with waaaaaay too much time on your hands."

Well I write individual notes on almost all my cards. I don't see any point in just sending a card with names on. I am not a social misfit but well organised . I could sit and watch trash on TV tonight or type on Mumsnet but I won't I will sit down and write my cards properly .

my mum wrote a spoof one a few years back. It went along the lines of:

January - Sister 1 invited to join the Oscar judging panel after her critique of the school christmas play was published in the school newsletter

February - Dad was awarded 2 Nobel prizes - in Medicine and in Economics, for his work on selling biological weapons to the Middle East

March - the dogs won Crufts, Best in Show and reserve Best in show - it was the first time 2 dogs of the same breed have got through to the final!

April - Arolf won the lottery despite not even buying a ticket!

May - brother tidied his room.

etc etc.

It was not well received by relatives who send us RRs, and she's back to writing the usual crap now - this year she wrote that I had gone to America to get pregnant, then returned to the UK to my fiance. Whereas the truth is closer to me being pregnant before going over there, then returning when I got a job back here. she made it sound like there's some doubt over who fathered my DS!

One of my best friends is in the north of Scotland, and much as I would like to, it just hasn't been possible to visit since she moved there! I hope to one day. We speak in between Christmas but I still like a letter with the Christmas card. I can't see any point in cards without letters.

I get one every year from my uncle and his (American) wife. They had their pfb last December and this years RR includes exact dates of pfb's first smile, first laugh, first time he rolled over, crawled, first steps and first tooth. It was nice to see a picture of my little cousin and hear that all was well but why on earth would I need to know that his first tooth came through on 29th May? The RR was 4 pages in total!

We get one every year that says as a postscript

"if you've enjoyed reading about the BLAH family's antics in this letter why not join us on Facebook for more regular updates.

Thus far, we've resisted!!

Hee hee. Bless!

My parents used to get a genuinely well written and interesting RR from an Icelandic playwright who my Dad was at college with. I'd never met him or his family but I always looked forward to reading it.

Sadly he died a couple of years ago so now they are left with the dull and boastful instead. The best ones usually manage to be both.

Having said that, I quite like a short (ie can fit inside the card without being folded) printed note with the important events of the immediate family in it (birth, death, graduation, marriage, that sort of thing). Just don't go on and on for pages of A4. And don't mention your holidays!

I agree with tinierclanger, don't get any because I'm an interloper into the middle classes... No family member ever gets one either! Had to get both of Simon Hoggart's books in order to read any...

I don't mind receiving them, they're normally absolutely (unintentionally) hilarious, and it has become a bit of a family ritual to read the various round robins and have a good chuckle at the nauseatingly boastful bits

but I hate it when people are absolutely thoughtless in what they put in and how they phrase it, my Mum's brother died one year and her SIL (married to her other brother) wrote a round robin letter which included the sentence "it was quite a tough year, x [Mum's brother] died and so did our cat".

needless to say, my mum still hasn't quite forgiven her

I would love to receive one.

I think if I was crossed off anyone's list for sending "pointless" cards, I'd stand in the street shouting wild huzzahs of gratitude. No offence intended, of course.

I'm happy to hear news from friends I don't see regularly but all the round robins we receive are so farkin' self-congratulatory. Or downright dull, as in the case of the annual missive from my cousin in Australia. This mainly lists (in product detail) all the home improvements carried out over the last 12 months together with glowing tales of family glory. Indeed, their children must be the Pride of Victoria so many are their achievements. Except for their middle child, that is. Whose entire year was summed up as "X moved to a flat in Y. She works for KFC". The poor girl failing on two fronts in that she has neither met parental expectations nor qualifies for a proper place in the family newsletter.

Having just received this year's letter from the Outback of Beyond, I am still getting over the knowledge that my other (and very dear) cousin in Australia has breast cancer and is having chemo right now. This information having been shared with EVERYONE on the round robin list. Which can't have been necessary.

We recieve quite a few. Highlights are the PIL's (to discover what we have been doing all year) and BIL's (which is always a bit sarcastic and hilarious). The rest are a bit mixed but the talented children bunch are people I know and like and the rest are still interesting because I'm really nosy.

We've sent a few in our time due again to moving around a lot, but they trickled out when our only news was "still not pregnant" for about 6 years and now all our friends have older children so they won't be impressed to hear about school plays and learning to ride a bike.

I think it's fair to focus on the positive though - the alternative is detailed breakdowns of leaky boilers and knee operations, who exactly wants to hear about that?

'why not join us on Facebook for more regular updates.

I think that is far, far worse than a Round Robin!

Mine are all from people that I have known for years and we have been through all sorts of things together; they are busy people and I wouldn't expect them to write a personal letter just to me. I edit mine and put in bits or take bits out, depending on the recipient. It has been quite useful over the years, i.e. a DC doing the same university course that my DS wants to do- and so after Christmas I have been able to ring or email and discuss it. I would suggest that if you don't like the Round Robin, and couldn't care less what has happened over the year, that you cut the contact-they obviously aren't real friends.

I can't stand them and can't imagine writing one.

'ds1 has learnt to read rude words. Ds2 has discovered his willy.' NEXT

I mean it's the same as facebook isn't it but all kind of grouped into one fell swoop of smugitude.

People like to sum up I suppose.

Elvislives and redbug i am rofl at your posts.

elvislives your uncle sounds great!!

I don't think it is that people don't care what their friends have been doing - it's just that the medium of the Round Robin brings out the weirdly creative / boastful / insane / unsettling side of many of the people who write them!

Can I put on mine that DH has asked for sex as a Christmas present?!

I love them - yes, we have some grim ones, but some friends are hilarious - we had one from two 80 year olds which managed to be genuinely funny about their bad health and things they had said to the doctor - and some are quite exciting. The best ever was from a psychiatrist who had just had to talk a suicidal man down from leaping off Tower Bridge.

I secretly love them. Two of the best we ever received were one from a friend who went on for a page and a half of A4 about her house, holidays etc before revealing halfway down the second page "Dh and I have not been spending enough time together so are getting divorced" I couldnt believe that didnt warrant a higher up placing in her letter.

And the second from my mum's batty friend whose letter I look forward to every year which reached a pinnacle of festive spirit one year when it was all about how her neighbour had tried to murder her by burning down the house they both had flats in...I really didnt know whether to laugh at how wildly inappropriate this news was in a Christmas RR or cry for her...

I love round robins which include details of new washing machines purchased, exams results obtained, and operations performed. It saves you having to listen to them bang on about them over the phone

YABU

Depends what you mean by Round Robins- I haven't the time to hand write letters to everyone who I want to update with a bit of news, so half a dozen letters that I have bashed out on the pc get stuffed into their cards.

I don't do holiday news, I don't do what we have bought, sold, earned, I just give the basics of where we are at now in terms of work, kids' situations and that's it.

Ilike them, I had one yestreday from someon I only know one aspect of and that really built her into a rounder person for me (you know who youa re)

I don't generally do them but as we have many relatives we don'tsee from decade to decade we probably ought. I often do one for MIl as we haven't had contact from her in @ 2 years now, think its important,and that gets passedaround her family afaik