Those bragging Christmas letters

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How do you feel when you receive one of those letters in a Christmas card, bragging about the sender’s family’s achievements in the past year? I don’t mean news from family members or close friends, but from people we hardly know.
I’m grateful when we can get through another year without a visit to the emergency room, and they’re gushing about their exotic vacations and how their kids are off somewhere, bringing water to some drought-stricken village, or mountain climbing, etc.
 
Tenebrae said:
How do you feel when you receive one of those letters in a Christmas card, bragging about the sender’s family’s achievements in the past year? I don’t mean news from family members or close friends, but from people we hardly know.
I’m grateful when we can get through another year without a visit to the emergency room, and they’re gushing about their exotic vacations and how their kids are off somewhere, bringing water to some drought-stricken village, or mountain climbing, etc.
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They’re usually fake or, at a minimum embellished. Make up your own. Last year your 3 year old was the first toddler in space. He HAD to go because his older sister needed dark side of the moon dust. It was the last ingredient she needed for her now patented cure for cancer, yeah that’s it.
 
Among_Strangers said:
They’re usually fake or, at a minimum embellished. Make up your own. Last year your 3 year old was the first toddler in space. He HAD to go because his older sister needed dark side of the moon dust. It was the last ingredient she needed for her now patented cure for cancer, yeah that’s it.
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:clapping: :extrahappy: That’s a real good idea! Not only would people get a great laugh…they would also get the message as well
 
Tenebrae said:
How do you feel when you receive one of those letters in a Christmas card, bragging about the sender’s family’s achievements in the past year? I don’t mean news from family members or close friends, but from people we hardly know.
I’m grateful when we can get through another year without a visit to the emergency room, and they’re gushing about their exotic vacations and how their kids are off somewhere, bringing water to some drought-stricken village, or mountain climbing, etc.
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I hate them things.

I know a family whose son played baseball with mine in high school. They played on opposite teams in Little League. He was ALWAYS one of the top players in the league. As a coach I would often get cornered up by parents at the concession stand and get a earful about how good their son was. This was especially bad come all star balloting.

If your son can play, I knew it, I was at the ballpark everynight. In fact that’s true of everyone. If he’s good, people know it, you don’t have to brag.

This boy was one of the top pitchers in the state coming out of high school that year. He had scholarship offers from all over the south, and was drafted by the pros.

He went pro, his signing bonus was close to 1 million dollars. He continues to pitch well in the major leagues, and my guess his annual salary is well in the millions.

We recieve a Christmas Card each year from his family. They never mention him, in fact if you run into them at Wal Mart, unless you ask, you’d never know they had a son in the major leagues.

The only thing their Christmas Card says is we wish you a Merry Christmas.
 
Tenebrae said:
How do you feel when you receive one of those letters in a Christmas card, bragging about the sender’s family’s achievements in the past year? I don’t mean news from family members or close friends, but from people we hardly know.
I’m grateful when we can get through another year without a visit to the emergency room, and they’re gushing about their exotic vacations and how their kids are off somewhere, bringing water to some drought-stricken village, or mountain climbing, etc.
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I think that your perception of the letters as “bragging” says more about you than the person who sent it, honestly.

I love getting letters from my friends, family, and even those who are not close. My DH gets letters from some of his college buddies. I have never met them, and I don’t even read them as they mean little to me. He, OTOH, likes to read them b/c he remebers these people fondly even though they don’t keep up beyond the yearly Christmas card now.

And, when the cards contain news that is happy-- well, of course I am happy for them. I don’t perceive it as bragging, merely as telling us what is going on. Got a promotion at work? Great. Kid got into a top school? Wonderful. Went to France on vacation? Sounds fun!

Who puts depressing news in their Christmas cards? No one.
 
Tenebrae said:
How do you feel when you receive one of those letters in a Christmas card, bragging about the sender’s family’s achievements in the past year? I don’t mean news from family members or close friends, but from people we hardly know.
I’m grateful when we can get through another year without a visit to the emergency room, and they’re gushing about their exotic vacations and how their kids are off somewhere, bringing water to some drought-stricken village, or mountain climbing, etc.
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Well, I would feel glad that they seem to be getting along just fine in life. I would not wish otherwise. I would also not want exotic or fantastic anything. I like simple and small wonders in life.
However, I do not care for those who brag and do not inquire about others. They do not come across as being humble. That says a lot IMO.
 
I love receiving the newsletters. My friends don’t tend to exaggerate in them but sometimes while stating a fact to all they will pen a ‘side note’ to special friends and family members. For example, this year my friend wrote that her son was completing a project that he’s been working on for a few years and that they hope this means he’ll seen be out on his own and gainfully employed. That’s fact; the aside she penned to me was “Not bloody likely due to his drug use and police record.”

My brother hates these so last year he sent this one:
OUR CHRISTMAS LETTER
This year was very different from all the other years. They transferred us to Moncton so we decided to move there. I drove my truck out here. Sometimes I had to stop for gas. In Ontario I saw lots of things. It was fun. We bought a house. It’s a good place to put all our stuff. Moncton is a nice place. There are lots of places to play golf. I hate golf. One day I sat on the patio. DW made sandwiches. It was fun. In October we went to a store. I bought new socks and DW looked at sweaters. It was fun. My new job is fun. I wear a uniform and do police stuff. Sometimes the dog loses his fur and we have to pick it up. It’s gross. There is a big church close to our house. On Sundays, lots of people go there. Some drive their cars and some just walk. I looks like fun. We went to a wine show. There were lots of kinds but only two colors. It was fun. DW and me are older than last year. There is lots of snow outside. There is no snow on my stuff. I’m glad we bough a house.
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Merry Xmas.
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I don’t mind them at all. If it’s someone I don’t have much contact with, I don’t bother reading it.
 
1ke said:
I don’t know what kind of company you keep, but my friends and family don’t make stuff up in their Christmas cards.
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Nor do mine. Since we have moved quite a bit during our marriage, it is a way to keep up with old friends that we only hear from at Christmas time. It let’s us know whose children got married, who graduated from college, who got a promotion. They don’t think like brags to me–at least is they are worded in such a way as to not be all flowery. We enjoy them.
 
I love Christmas letters. I think it so much better than just a card with a signature on the bottom… espeically if I haven’t talked to you in awhile. I want to hear about your adorable children and your job promotion and your fun trip to Disney World.

Even the really braggy ones - and I agree… there is a fine line between sharing and literally GUSHING over how great your life is… but even the really gushy ones I like. My DH & I laugh over the them. I know that nobody’s life is perfect - even if they make it sound like it is.

Every year we send out a picture of all seven of us in front of the Christmas tree. Sweet smiling faces and everyone in their Sunday best. What people don’t see is the total chaos that goes into getting everybody ready… me yelling like a wild woman for the kids to put nice clothes on and NO those jeans are not nice I don’t care if they are SUPPOSED to be ripped…Stop goofing around … everyone LOOK at the camera… Keep looking and SMILE !!! Quit making those goofy facing young man or Santa will bring you a big lump of coal and my the teenagers whining, “WHY DO YOU TOTURUE US LIKE THIS YEAR AFTER YEAR?” That’s the reality behind our picture perfect.

I keep that in mind when I read Christmas letters.
 
You should be glad they care enough about you to mail you letters. With the ease of email and the hassle of buying stamps and mailing letters, you must be really important to them :D.

Especially with the cost of stamps and cards, they would only be sending them to a select few, not mass mailings, LOL. The cost of stamps alone for 10 cards would already be $4.20.
 
Tenebrae said:
How do you feel when you receive one of those letters in a Christmas card, bragging about the sender’s family’s achievements in the past year? I don’t mean news from family members or close friends, but** from people we hardly know**…
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I prefer personal notes to catch up with old friends & relatives, but I also enjoy a well written Christmas letter.

Some of my friends write very entertaining and creative letters. Others should proof-read more carefully–but those are often funny. “Some sad news–we lost grand dad and the dog this year. The kids miss the dog.”
yellowbird said:
I love Christmas letters. I think it so much better than just a card with a signature on the bottom… espeically if I haven’t talked to you in awhile. I want to hear about your adorable children and your job promotion and your fun trip to Disney World.

Even the really braggy ones - and I agree… there is a fine line between sharing and literally GUSHING over how great your life is… but even the really gushy ones I like. My DH & I laugh over the them. I know that nobody’s life is perfect - even if they make it sound like it is.

Every year we send out a picture of all seven of us in front of the Christmas tree. Sweet smiling faces and everyone in their Sunday best. What people don’t see is the total chaos that goes into getting everybody ready.. me yelling like a wild woman for the kids to put nice clothes on and NO those jeans are not nice I don’t care if they are SUPPOSED to be ripped…Stop goofing around … everyone LOOK at the camera… Keep looking and SMILE !!! Quit making those goofy facing young man or Santa will bring you a big lump of coal and my the teenagers whining, “WHY DO YOU TOTURUE US LIKE THIS YEAR AFTER YEAR?” That’s the reality behind our picture perfect.

I keep that in mind when I read Christmas letters.
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I agree with yellowbird.:yup: If I was willing to post pictures of my children on the internet, I’d start a thread with the Christmas photos we DIDN’T send.
 
Look, I like to get news of family and friends. I’m happy for them if they’re doing well. It’s not the letters I object to but the gushing, bragging tone of some of them.
 
Like-

"Well we had a great year this year. Tom got a big promotion and now has the corner office. We celebrated with a 2 week vacation to St. John’s last Feb.

Little Tom made the all star team again this year and seems to have all the girls chasing him again. We tell him he needs to slow down, but we can’t say much because he’s back on the A honor roll for the 3rd year in a row. He is currently looking at scholarship offers from Harvard, Yale and Princeton. He will decide sometime in the spring.

Little Jane is also doing well. She won the Jr Miss contest, we are so proud. We were shocked to find out she was chosen most popular in the sophomore class. She has plans to go to medical school but last year it was law school so who really knows?

I’m busy with bridge club, and Service league. I was elected president of the Chamber of Commerce and have to meet regualary with Gov and mayor, just busy busy!

Other projects this year have been fixing up our vacation home on Cape Cod, reinvesting the money we made in the market to a few international funds. Yada yada yada. :sleep:

Now if thats what y’alll send out and like to read, I dunno LOL. Let the chips fall where they may, just DON’T send one to me. :nunchuk:

Now contrast the above with this hand written note (NO mass copies)

Our family is safe and well this holiday, we were truly blessed last year. All of us here wish you the best, please know we are thinking of y’all and wish you a Merry Christmas.

I have a rule, I don’t read anything in a Christmas Card that is printed out or copied. If you JUST got to tell me about Jr making the all star team, send me a email, not in a letter in your Christmas Card???

But to each his own.
 
The older I get, the more I appreciate a card that reads:

“Same old, same old. We are all fine. Have a Merry Christmas.”

😉 :rolleyes: Although I have been known to make up a thing or two in my “letter” to people who send braggy ones, such as the year I said one to the effect of:

"Things are well with our clan. We just got 4 new foster kids, strictly for the cash, of course. We feed them when the mood strikes us. Sleeping arrangments were no problem. Isn’t it wonderful what one can do with sleeping bags? The eldest girls is becoming a real whiz in the kitchen, so we keep her home from school. It’s like being paid to have a household staff! What luck!

"Junior was allowed out on probation from his last opportunity at Statesville. However, turning around and executing a liquor store robbery on his second day out was just too much for his probation officer. What a scamp that Junior is! He’s back at Statesville, in the License Plate division. This time, he was placed in a cell with only one other inmate. Promotion!

"Mimsie was named National Exotic Dancer of the Year by the Exotic Dancers Union. This is particularly marvelous, given her stretch marks from the last grandchild.

"DH is taking all the family changes in stride. He’s working sometimes 132 hours a week, just to keep himself busy and out of the house.

“Well, that wraps up what’s been going on in the past year. If you really want to know what goes on in our home, pick up a phone and call us. If you’ve lost our phone number, it’s ###-###-####. Perhaps you could even stop by next time you’re in town.”
 
BamaRider said:
Like-

"Well we had a great year this year. Tom got a big promotion and now has the corner office. We celebrated with a 2 week vacation to St. John’s last Feb.

Little Tom made the all star team again this year and seems to have all the girls chasing him again. We tell him he needs to slow down, but we can’t say much because he’s back on the A honor roll for the 3rd year in a row. He is currently looking at scholarship offers from Harvard, Yale and Princeton. He will decide sometime in the spring.

Little Jane is also doing well. She won the Jr Miss contest, we are so proud. We were shocked to find out she was chosen most popular in the sophomore class. She has plans to go to medical school but last year it was law school so who really knows?

I’m busy with bridge club, and Service league. I was elected president of the Chamber of Commerce and have to meet regualary with Gov and mayor, just busy busy!

Other projects this year have been fixing up our vacation home on Cape Cod, reinvesting the money we made in the market to a few international funds. Yada yada yada. :sleep:

Now if thats what y’alll send out and like to read, I dunno LOL. Let the chips fall where they may, just DON’T send one to me. :nunchuk:

Now contrast the above with this hand written note (NO mass copies)

Our family is safe and well this holiday, we were truly blessed last year. All of us here wish you the best, please know we are thinking of y’all and wish you a Merry Christmas.
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I have a rule, I don’t read anything in a Christmas Card that is printed out or copied. If you JUST got to tell me about Jr making the all star team, send me a email, not in a letter in your Christmas Card???

But to each his own.

Guy you’re such a class act:thumbsup:

Here is the thing… IMHO if you’re writing a letter as an update, it’s highly doubtful most of the people you’re writing to you are very close to, or they would already know your updates. If you don’t see them in person occasionally, talk on the phone, or keep up via email, facebook or what not, how close of friends can they be? And, if you’re not that close to people, why do they want to know you got a corner office, went on vacation, and that your daughter got all dolled up for some silly pageant? What is the point of telling them, and what does it have to do with Christmas:confused: 🤷 ?

If someone wants to update me on their life, and they have my address, they likely have my phone number as well, and can call me and say hello and update me as well as ask me how my family is doing. Ah reciprocity. Or, at the very least, they can write me a personal letter if they are in the letter writing mood. I’m not a customer to be mass marketed to, I’m a person. A personal communication would be nice, and frankly polite.

To each his own I guess, but I’m with Guy, I hate those things:twocents: .
 
OutinChgoburbs said:
The older I get, the more I appreciate a card that reads:

“Same old, same old. We are all fine. Have a Merry Christmas.”

😉 :rolleyes: Although I have been known to make up a thing or two in my “letter” to people who send braggy ones, such as the year I said one to the effect of:

"Things are well with our clan. We just got 4 new foster kids, strictly for the cash, of course. We feed them when the mood strikes us. Sleeping arrangments were no problem. Isn’t it wonderful what one can do with sleeping bags? The eldest girls is becoming a real whiz in the kitchen, so we keep her home from school. It’s like being paid to have a household staff! What luck!

"Junior was allowed out on probation from his last opportunity at Statesville. However, turning around and executing a liquor store robbery on his second day out was just too much for his probation officer. What a scamp that Junior is! He’s back at Statesville, in the License Plate division. This time, he was placed in a cell with only one other inmate. Promotion!

"Mimsie was named National Exotic Dancer of the Year by the Exotic Dancers Union. This is particularly marvelous, given her stretch marks from the last grandchild.

"DH is taking all the family changes in stride. He’s working sometimes 132 hours a week, just to keep himself busy and out of the house.

“Well, that wraps up what’s been going on in the past year. If you really want to know what goes on in our home, pick up a phone and call us. If you’ve lost our phone number, it’s ###-###-####. Perhaps you could even stop by next time you’re in town.”
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:rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: 👍
 
OutinChgoburbs said:
The older I get, the more I appreciate a card that reads:

“Same old, same old. We are all fine. Have a Merry Christmas.”

😉 :rolleyes: Although I have been known to make up a thing or two in my “letter” to people who send braggy ones, such as the year I said one to the effect of:

"Things are well with our clan. We just got 4 new foster kids, strictly for the cash, of course. We feed them when the mood strikes us. Sleeping arrangments were no problem. Isn’t it wonderful what one can do with sleeping bags? The eldest girls is becoming a real whiz in the kitchen, so we keep her home from school. It’s like being paid to have a household staff! What luck!

"Junior was allowed out on probation from his last opportunity at Statesville. However, turning around and executing a liquor store robbery on his second day out was just too much for his probation officer. What a scamp that Junior is! He’s back at Statesville, in the License Plate division. This time, he was placed in a cell with only one other inmate. Promotion!

"Mimsie was named National Exotic Dancer of the Year by the Exotic Dancers Union. This is particularly marvelous, given her stretch marks from the last grandchild.

"DH is taking all the family changes in stride. He’s working sometimes 132 hours a week, just to keep himself busy and out of the house.

“Well, that wraps up what’s been going on in the past year. If you really want to know what goes on in our home, pick up a phone and call us. If you’ve lost our phone number, it’s ###-###-####. Perhaps you could even stop by next time you’re in town.”
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Can I use this one next year? 👍

I get tired of the ones that say, every single year, “when are ya’ll coming to see us again?” One of these days, I’m just gonna shoot back with, “Well, heck, we checked the odometer the last time we visited ya’ll and I’m pretty sure it worked out that it’s the same distance from THERE to HERE as it is from HERE to THERE!!! Why don’t YOU come visit US???”

And whoever said no one puts depressing news into Christmas letters doesn’t share my circle of acquaintances. One lady I worked with years ago and just added me to her Christmas list wrote–in detail–about her daughter’s hernia operation and subsequent infected incision, her son losing his job (again) and joining AA (again), and the family feud that erupted at the hospital when her grandfather’s ventilator was about to be removed, over who “deserved” to get Grandpa’s classic Fairlane after the funeral. This on top of how her spring allergies didn’t go away until mid-October and how the the color of the mucus, like the leaves, changed with the seasons.

Sometimes it would be warmer and fuzzier to get a bland card stamped with “Merry Christmas from the Simpsons”.

EDIT: And yes, after a while, everyone should prune their address book, especially if you are into mailing copies of Christmas letters with no individualized notes. For years my mother kept receiving Christmas cards from a couple she and my dad had met forty years earlier… they never wrote anything but their names in the cards, not even “How are you?” Mom often wondered if those people really remembered them or if they just got a card because they were in the address book.
 
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