So what should a round robin letter include?

[yellowflowers]

I'm not sending one but another thread is taking mickey out of them just talking about holidays and cars so what should they include?

Mine always seems to include news of the latest house-move. DH and each DC gets a mention. A few photos. But mainly the new address.

They are completely unnecessary and smug IMO regardless of content

But is there another way to avoid all those semiannual phone calls asking about what has happened? (never sent one btw but considering it)

Yes, they are commonly known as family functions

... I am sorry - it was me - I didn't mean to "take the mickey" - it's just that I receive so many of these at Christmas and my heart takes a downturn dive each time they fall out of the Christmas card ......

From experience:-

• • don't make it too gushing on how fantastic your family are and how blessed you have been this year - not all of us may have been "that lucky"
• • keep the photos to a minimum - we don't need to see everything - two or three photos max is ample to get a "flavour"
• • one A4 page max - any more I lose the will to live - and make the type big - if you are sending to "oldies" they may not be able to read very small print -less is more but BIGGER

*- all the "achievements" - just make sure that they are worthy of print....

• • try to use non-smudge ink - mostly they are read after the morning post has been delivered - butter (or marg if you are slimming)and inkjet print is not a good combination

... well that's my list.

Oh I didn't think taking the mickey a bad thing. It's one of my greatest pleasures reading the ones my parents receive from old family friends and taking the pee out of them. I was just wondering what a good one would be like x

I love getting them. It's always nice to catch up with old friends but we rarely get the have nowadays.

We just stick a few pictures of the kids on ours and give a brief round-up of what we've been up to all year. No trumpeting of achievements, just normal news.

We have a huge family, with aunts/uncles/cousins who we don't see very often, likewise a few old university friends. Quite frankly, if they are not interested in what we've been up to then I would question why they are even on our Christmas card list.

And yes, I love receiving them. I know that Aunty H's will be full of her gardening stories, and S's will be a list of the countries she has visited this year, but I really enjoy catching up with their news.

Smug boasting is mandatory. If there's nothing for dh and I to poke fun at then I don't wanna read it

The ones we receive are all couched in frightfully arch language so if you haven't really been in touch then you have no idea what they're talking about. For instance, "Tarquin has been scaling mountains this year" could mean he's been climbing but it could equally well mean he's been fighting alcoholism. Who knows? And get this: "Maximilian is none the worse for his dramatic ducking" turned out to be a reference to his having been in Christ Church during the earthquake, not to a University prank.

Be clear.

I've never had a round robin i suspect that makes me working class apart from one guy at uni who gave one out in his cards, even though we sat next to him every day. He spoke about himself in the third person too. It was most odd.

I'm with the piss takers. Best bit of opening a card and finding one is knowing you've got five mins of hilarious smugness to read