Anyone else tired of the "Our family is better than yours" Xmas letters?

[bif]

You know, the ones that read: Don got a huge promotion this year. Little Suzie is in med school. Timmy is in law school. They're both on the Dean's List (of course). We spent two wonderful weeks in Hawaii, etc. etc. I'd love to do one that reads: I'm still unemployed and we're really struggling. Vacation? What the hell is that?!?!?! Kids can only afford Junior College...

[skygazer]

1. I really don't read them

We only get a couple of them - one from our chiropractor which is kind of odd. :wtf:

I guess people think their friends and relatives are interested in what's going on with them. I am to a point but would rather hear it in another venue - at the next family wedding or funeral I attend, or in small doses on the phone. I'm not really into reading several autobiographies when I'm trying to focus on how much brandy to pour into my eggnog.

[MissMillie]

2. I'd love to send one out telling all the nightmares of the last year

Just to shock the heck out of everyone.

But it is supposed to be a season filled w/ joy, and why bring everyone else down.


(Actually, I've had a pretty good year)

[Mad_Dem_X]

9. We considered sending a joke one out one year

With all kinds of silly exaggerations, just for a laugh. But we thought some of our friends might take offense.

I hate those letters; it makes it seem as if the writer couldn't take the time to write everyone personally. I'd rather have a brief, personal note than a long, involved one that's the same as everyone is getting.

[tigereye]

32. I always write little notes - I think the form letters are kind of impersonal

I have seen some with "fake" brags - quite amusing.

[Crazy Dave]

3. I don't get any of those

I guess everyone I know is in the same boat.

I do get and I'm tired of all the ones with ugly family portraits in them.

[Dulcinea]

15. I hate those picture cards.

I can't recycle them, & what am I going to do with all those stupid pictures of people I haven't seen in years?

[Sequoia]

22. Last year we got one with the title "The Good Life"

and split photos of them in Rome. This was odd because she had told me a year ago how she didn't like to tell their church friends about all the trips they take since it would make them feel bad (children too) about not being able to afford such things.

[bif]

4. We get one every year from a disfunctional family that's pretty amusing

"Cousin Billy is finally out of prison. Brother Ed is still on a tether. Sis had her cat run over."

It's funny in a sad sort of way. Just how much bad stuff can happen to one family in a year? I appreciate their honesty.

[Phentex]

25. This year's would be a doozie for my family!

I would love to do it just to piss off some family members (even further that is!)

This was the topic of one of my very first posts at DU. I had just received the newsletter describing a friend's house renovation in detail (where they added new molding, removed wallpaper, etc.) :)

I find some of them to be cute and interesting and then others get the great big WTF?

[Fleshdancer]

5. I've been meaning to create a prank one

I need to start earlier though because life is always too crazy busy this time of year. When I do get around to it, I know it will have atleast one good zombie story.

[tigereye]

33. Uncle Ted was mauled and eaten while heading out to the barn

then Britta developed an odd kind of shuffling gait and a taste for entrails..


:rofl: Love it.

[Initech]

6. George Carlin had a great bit about family newsletters.

"We're so proud of Brad - he got accepted into dental school."
"Yeah? In the Phillippenes. After 6 tries."

[Iggo]

7. My mom used to send those out....

...back when she was upwardly mobile.

I always felt a little bad, in a laugh-out-loud kind of way, for the poor folks who received them.

[Zomby Woof]

8. They're boring and self-indulgent

Especially when they include phrases such as "the Lord has blessed us this year", etc. Sometimes, it's not that they are filled with great accomplishments and bragging - it's that they are as BORING as the people who write them. "Bob took the biggest dump of his life back in April. He measured it at 18 inches!".

[SoxFan]

17. I might use this

:rofl:

[Arugula Latte]

10. My parents always sent those out and I always cringed.

My mom sent one out this year, and, yes, it had that insufferable tone, even though she probably didn't mean for it to come across that way. I can't read those letters without wincing.

[Jokerman]

11. We only get one and I look forward to it every year.

The combination of self-absorbed, child-centric, right wing attitude with an abundance of typos and grammatical errors makes (proof) reading it a fun holiday tradition around our house.

[rcrush]

12. If there is no money in the Christmas card it goes straight in the trash.

Garbage!

[firecrackerfilms]

13. me too

i hate those things!

[Gidney N Cloyd]

14. I don't mind the real ones. But the fake ones my brother sends suck.

As a humor writer, he's a great CPA.

[Dulcinea]

16. I get one of those every year from an ex-BF's mom.

I broke up with her son in 1992, but she still sends me a Christmas letter every year. (I'm married with 2 kids. Her son never found anyone. My husband thinks it's freakishly hilarious.) :shrug:

[sarge43]

18. Answer to 'better than yours' Xmas letter: "Got a huge promotion this year?"

"Hey that's great. I scored a slot with the IRS as an auditor. See ya!"

[fishnfla]

19. I enjoy getting and reading them

eom

[abq e streeter]

20. good to see; thought I was the only one

[revolution breeze]

21. Husband's ex-in-laws

They used to send us one every year until I sent one back saying "We hope to finally pay off Muffy's credit card bills which she racked up right before she decided she wanted a divorce so she could go find herself. It will be nice to have paid of $40,000 and maybe now our daughter can get her braces and I can buy a good used vehicle." Heard through the family grape vine she is separated from husband #2(I guess that is why American Express keeps calling my house looking for her).

[Deep13]

23. So your relatives actually write to you then.

Huh.

[Deep13]

24. Actually, I would like to get those to know what's going on with relatives I never hear from.nt

[pokerfan]

26. Like this one?

[tigereye]

34. ahaha

:rofl: That's so great!

[Missy Vixen]

27. We write a Christmas letter

This year's version is not all cheery. We don't have kids to brag about, so we have to focus on other things. We don't get complaints about the letter.

I enjoy reading the letters we get every year. I especially enjoy the "Little Missy is up for the Nobel Peace Prize" variety.

:woohoo:

[kimi]

28. My mom and SIL write competing letters

Everything that the one writes, the other vehemently denies. It's sort of funny, till the tears start. Phone calls, angry denunciations, "corrected" Christmas letters go out, and it'll all die down in February or March.

Till next year.

[velvet]

30. "corrected Christmas letters"

That's hilarious. You just made my morning, thanks.

[PassingFair]

29. Here's a funny one.....

http://thelipstickchronicles.typepad.com/the_lipstick_chronicles/2006/12/annual_christma.html

snip>

"Fred Junior was sorry to leave his job at Home Depot when "cutbacks" forced that mean boss of his to let Fred Junior go. Now he was plenty of free time to "hang with his homeys" down at the Brew Pub and play football pool--especially now that he doesn't have to wear that big ankle bracelet anymore. We were surprised when he started parking a brand new Hummer in front of the house, but he says it's a "perk" for applying for a job as a pharmaceutical rep. See, all those years of Ritalin have finally paid off now that our son is entering the "drug trade!"

You'll be pleased to hear that my dear little brother Davy is still living in our basement apartment. Even better, he now has a job! Who knew selling stuff on eBay could be so lucrative? We could hardly believe he was willing to part with his Star Wars action figures, but we wanted to support his desire to travel. How exciting to see him come back from Thailand with a new friend! As soon as Tony learns a little more English, we hope to find out if he's a boy or a girl. And maybe he or she can help me find my missing Hummel collection and Ashley's vintage Cabbage Patch dolls."

[bif]

35. Very funny!

[bif]

31. Kick

[Lydia Leftcoast]

36. What a small-minded, conventionally motivated attitude

Everybody is "supposed" to hate those Christmas letters. The mass media tell us that we're supposed to.

You know what I hate? People I haven't seen for years who just sign their names or worse yet, send a card with a printed signature. Whoopee. What a waste of trees. So you're alive. I knew that. If you weren't, someone would have told me.

I've lived on both coasts and know people all over the country who are important to me but whom I don't get to see for years at a time. I LIKE those annual letters.

I don't begrudge friends their good fortune if they really have something to brag about.

Frankly, I don't get a lot of letters that are made up of "bragging." Maybe you do. I get letters in which people share both their triumphs and their troubles.

One of my friends went through a horrible period in her life in which she suffered with chronic illness and lost her entire immediate family--her parents and her only sister, all in just a couple of years.

A few years later, she married someone whose work has him traveling all over the world (I won't identify him further). Each annual letter tells of a wonderful trip she took with him, but you know, I don't begrudge her that, because she went through hell during the 1980s and deserves every good thing that happens to her.