Round Robins - yes or no?

[morningpaper]

I think Round Robins are massively under-rated!

I USED to do them but I don't anymore because they are The Height Of Naff.

Instead I send a photo of the children.

I have 120 cards to write and I can't possibly write a note in each one.

What is the solution?

lol lol Ca.Frau.
Better the devil you know eh?
Actually,was/am very fond of Van.
Just a tad trying when the snow was thigh deep and I couldn't leave the flat with the pram for three days.

I did however handsew two queen sized patchwork quilts so something came of it all!

I think round robins are generally naff, but if it is up to the standard of your weekly mumsnet roundup, then you might get away with it. Let's be honest, like everything, it is the ones that are done badly that are hilarious.

I suppose the unfortunate truth is that once we lose contact with people, we cease to care about the minutae of their lives. In most conversations the information flows both ways, whereas a Round Robin has a feel of "Here is what we did this year, but I am not bothered enough about your news to ask."

My uncle, on emigration, used to send one to the whole family which was fondly known as "the Epistle according to X".

mp, I for one know you have done a beautiful website this year!! You should be very proud of all your hard work and creativity. You have been very creative this year, despite bad back etc!

Hey, Moondog, have you read the book Diplomatic Baggage by Bridget Keenan? It's v funny about expat life!

Ha ha,no Sue I haven't.

Have made a note of it.

I tell ya,the stories I could tell......

Mind you my parents have even better ones.

New Year's Eve in The Steppe Inn (geddit??)in the British Embassy in Ulan Bator in 1990 while my father consoled a drunken diplomat who was having an affair with a Mongolian trapeze artisit springs to mind...

I'm with you morningpaper, I love Round Robins, I read them all avidly, however naff, and I curse the day that the wretched Simon Hoggart thought to turn a quick buck by being so superior about them. We sent one out for about three or four years, mostly because a lot was happening in our lives: moving, changing jobs, parents dying, adopting the DDs. We stopped a couple of years ago, partly through Hoggart-inspired diffidence, mostly because nothing has happened (hooray) and we have nothing to say.

I have a feeling that PPH has received a couple of our round robins ....... gulp!

Lol, Moondog - are you sure it isn't your mum who's written that book?? My copy of the book is out on loan so I can't check but I think it starts in Khazakstan or somewhere similar. You'll find yourself nodding in agreement all the way through.

Issymum, I like the RR's I receive and it is a shame SH has put the kibosh(sp) on them. The best RR I get is the one where the couple compete in marathons and detail all their timings down the last nanosecond. They've both had injuries in the past two years so have been doing some sort of weirdy sailing instead, also involving nanoseconds!

That's decided me. I'm definitely going to do a tongue in cheek round robin this year, a kind of festive joke for all our friends and any family that have a sense of humour.

They are f*cking naff.

Use MS Word's template functions to write personalised letters quickly. Then mail merge.

Easy peasy, spares everyone any illegible handwriting, and far superior to a round robin.

I hate them w/a purple passion.

A sick, disgusting trend from the US that makes me want to hurl.

Anyone who sends me one of those letters gets dashed off my Xmas card list.

Now don't mince your words expat.

Got to say I agree in RL, but am more tactful online. Without wishing to offend anyone here, I have always been extremely cutting towards them when we have got them in the past.

B/c they are thoughtless, perfunctory, boastful, bourgeois and naff, Mad.

I think they're rude (and hysterical in the hands of Simon Hoggart)

I find them gauche, too. I mean, wouldn't it be more honest to write, 'You don't count enough for me to write to personally, so I'm sending you this waste of paper for the express reason of boosting my ego to boast to you about things I'm too up myself to realise you don't give a wnk about. Merry Christmas. Go fck yourself.'

Go on then, let's lay in. I would agree that they are boastful, selfish, egocentric.

They are the postal equivalent of a one hour long wedding speech in which the father of the bride mentions every single person in the room and their connection to HIM, not the bride or groom.

I'll never forget that wedding.

They give me hours of fun laughing at how awful the people who write them are

I would NEVER send one

They're an attack of verbal diarrhoea at its smelliest.

I'd rather get no card at all than one containing one of those.

They're insulting. The Christmas equivalent of 'baby dust' and wedding and baby 'showers'.

Worse are people who send out RR DVDs for others to watch them boasting about themselves.

I put them in my giant Mexican mortar and pestle, smash them to smithereens and send them in a jiffy bag back to the recipient anonymously.

I love these notes. They're a good way to stay in touch with friends around the world. I really like the letters with lots of photos. I write one as well.

dvds?

It is much, much worse than giving everyone you know a framed photo of your own children for Christmas.

The devil is in the detail.

"After scoring a record mark in his Baccalareat a year early, Justin spent his summer surfing in Hawaii, and will be spending a gap year travelling round South East Asia teaching English"

How does anyone verify this crap? Is anyone tempted to exaggerate? Especially when the last time anyone saw Justin was when he was 3 months old?

Is this some sort of joke? The best round robins are those that arrive at the house for previous occupants, so you don't even know them.

Yes, bundle, DVDs. Like a twisted game of one-upmanship in the US. Just when you thought they couldn't get any more crass and boastful, they come up w/something new.

morning paper, more details re upsetting rich person please [nosey emoticon]

I'm dying to do a spoof one and just send it to those people who send me theirs.

Please, please someone send me one this year so I can have a really good laugh. I have a couple of old friends who I just KNOW will be sending one to my previous addresses. It must be time to catch up with them and get back on that mailing list.....

It's lovely to get a card with a letter on how the family is. Christmas is a good time to keep in touch.

I can't bear them. Not the boastful "look what my wonderful family has achieved this year" ones, complete with pictures of children at graduations etc. Grim. Much nicer to get a few well thought out lines in the Christmas card.