Who can't wait for their first '*bragadosia' aka round robin of Christmas!!!!

[missymoosal]

Every year I await with baited breath for the heavy thud of the first of many Christmas bragadosia's to hit the mat leaving a visible dent.
I settle down on the sofa to immerse myself in the infintesimal details of those who are blessed with such full and interesting lives.
I have my ventolin and a bucket close to hand as both nausea and uncontrollable laughter are usually the order of the day.
How do you enjoy yours?

If (very big if) I were going to do one, I would do a cunning mail-merge thing that took the standard "this is what we've been doing" thing and interspersed with personal comments and questions to the recipient, so that it came across as something more personal.

Books are:

The Cat That Could Open the Fridge: A Curmudgeon's Guide to Christmas Round Robin Letters

and

The Hamster That Loved Puccini: The Seven Modern Sins of Christmas Round-robin Letters

I've only read the hamster one, but it was very funny.

Thanks Lemonaid. Will see if either of them are on BP - am a skintflint and it's much cheaper!

I think there are some v v v cheap second-hand copies on Amazon (admittedly with postage on top)

Oke doke, thanks will have a go with the mail merge idea

I have in the past sent edited versions to some people cos some of the news is not suitable for them to read iyswim

I do write a personnal comment on the bottom of most of them apart from on DH side

I've only ever had one and it was from an aquaintence who lives in the same town as us, kids go to the same school as ours, so we actually see each other quite regularly - didn't see the point really - but didn't have the courage to ask her if she had enclosed it in the christmas card by mistake.... (And it was very bragging...)

The most annoying thing about one we get (Monica finally got that promotion...Craig still coaches the U-11s) is that you can't understand which one of them has actually written it.
It never occured to me that it might be a family pet.

very difficult to write a positive up beat family newsletter with out seeming a bit braggish.
I tried working out what the high points of this year had been, came up with - baby born, medals at a world championship and nominated for an award at work. To some that would seem like bragging. So what do i have to include to not been seen as showing off. must I whinge about ds not sleeping through, moan about being dog tired most of the time or gripe about how little time I get to cycle now.
I was thinking about including a round robin with some christmas card this year, but its a minefeild isn't it.

medals? Wow!

I'd just photocopy the medal and send that round tbh - honestly. Or perhaps a picture of it/them hanging from the Christmas tree. That's not something that happens every day.

oh i'm just dreading the smug studio family photo from the US 0f A of Chipolata and Emphysema ((or whatever their called) and their long list of family 1sts achieved over the yr. Maybe I should send them one of my cat, drapped in tinsel, proudly sitting next to its steaming litter tray?!

lol UniSarah - I know what you are saying - you obviously want to tell family your news but don't want to brag - it's true that you want to give the 'highlights' not the 'lowlights'!

I suppose the way I see it is - that if it's something important/really great then those people who need to know (i.e. those most important to you) will already know IYSWIM.

I confess I do send one to people who I know send them too. I'd much rather a handwritten note too, but I don't get any of those?? All the cards I get are signed, many by the mum only, and many not addressed to us by name - sort of conveyor belt production thing. I do rather have SOME news than none at all, but I admire the people who write handwritten notes in their cards. Have also read the books and think they're hysterical. If I were not a kind a charming soul I'd contribute a few of the classics I've received too.

I love your idea, RTTH!

Just the type of card I'd like to receive.

Maybe I should write one all in txtspk so no one understands what the hell is going on.

Or a nice long one in French - and that doesn't make sense, either.

Round Robin letters really are a pile of dung.

Oh Expat your last comment has made me LOL. I did once get one detailing the exact cubic metre quantity of manure a family had had delivered and what they had done with it all!!!

Oh dear, I'm a-swithering and a-dithering here! I just haven't got the time to handwrite 40+ letters but don't want to send a bragadosia either. Handwriting them seems unfair because the first person on the list gets a reasonably writen letter while the 40th gets a two line undecipherable scrawl, as I get fed up of writing.

I've always been a fairly prolific letter-writer, (not just at Xmas time) and in some ways it seems that antipathy towards Xmas RR's has tainted written correspondence altogether. Maybe I should post my current bragadosia here for MN comments.

Sometimes I even get the spelling correct...written not writen.