The Christmas round robin

In our press and media there has been a lot of comment about the annual round robin – the letter people enclose with Christmas and greetings cards at this time of year. Originally ’round robin’ was a document signed by many people in a circle ( I think the signatures were in a circle,  not the people!) so that there should not be seen to be any main signatory.  These days, it is a copied letter recounting the past year’s triumphs and disasters of the sender’s family, with a space for the name at the top and usually a space at the end for a personal signature.

There has been some criticisms of these letters, as sometimes they seem to be bragging, sometimes they seem to be a list of disasters, and sometimes a ramble through the uninteresting occurences in another person’s year:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/7785410.stm

Lynn Truss has written a response to these letters: “‘Tis the season for round-robin letters sent to friends, family and passing acquaintances. Some welcome the chance to touch base, but the heavily-glossed updates on high-achieving children and exotic holidays can be annoying, says writer Lynne Truss. So this year, she has devised several responses to a fictional round-robin that will, she hopes, result in her removal from future festive mailing lists.”

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-20810452

I receive a couple of these letters each year, and I try to read them in the spirit they are sent. I do write letters to some friends at Christmas time, usually older people, but they are always individual ones, personal to each, but it is a time to give news of highlights as well as sadder things which have occurred.

So what would be my highlights?

• going to Iceland
• going on holiday to Yorkshire with my cousins
• starting my WordPress blog
• my daughter becoming 18 and getting into the university of Ulster to do the course she wanted
• my son working so hard all over the summer holidays on the Grand Pier
• publishing my novels on Kindle
• the birth of my cousin’s grandson after many difficulties for his parents
• the engagement of another cousin to her long-term partner
• celebrating twenty-two years of being with my husband and twenty-one years of marriage

There are sad things too, mainly the loss of people dear to me, my godmother, the neighbour I have known all my life… at this time of year I remember the happy times with them and feel lucky that I’ve known them.

So… three days to go before Christmas Day… and it’s raining!