Accrington Web - View Single Post - Round robin

susie123 · 14-12-2011, 14:51

I’m not talking fat birds here but the Christmas circular letter sometimes known as a round robin. Some people seem to dislike them and I have never been able to understand why.

In our 35 years together my partner and I have moved about a bit so we have friend all over the place. Most of them we don’t see or hear from from one year’s end to the next though when we move house we tend to get a lot of visitors to check out our new place. Every year I send about a hundred Christmas cards as a way of keeping in touch and I compose a letter to go with them. We don’t have children or grandchildren to brag about, which is I think what annoys a lot of folk about these letters, it’s really just about our travels, what we’ve done in the garden, how the house refurbishment is going… This year I thought there would not be much to say as we have not been away, done no gardening as the garden was dug up for drainage work, and taken a breather from house refurbishment, but it seemed take as much space to say what we hadn’t done as what we had! The recipients seem pleased to get our letter, the alternative being no news as I couldn’t do 100 personal messages, and we usually get about ten in return, plus some hand written notes, and one or two letters after Christmas.

One problem is that you’re usually responding to news that is at least a year old if you comment on last year’s letter, also as we get older (we are in our sixties) there is more sad news from other people. So far this year one friend has told us that her father had died (not unexpected as last year’s letter mentioned his decline), she and her son have broken their ankles and her son’s girlfriend had been diagnosed with breast cancer. And this friend is the one who most enjoys getting circular letters from people. Another 80 year old friend wrote that he had been in and out of hospital as the scar from the previous year’s heart surgery refused to heal. Yet he still sent a very positive letter full of family doings. Last year in April we had a letter from a firm of solicitors telling us that the intended recipient had died a year before! We have also had lots of good news about family weddings but so far this year no births.

So I think these letters are a good thing as they keep us in touch and I like to receive them. I also like to get cards and display them to remind me of the senders. I don’t like it when folks send an e-card instead though I did email my letter to Canada, Oz and NZ to save postage. I still posted a card to my friends there though, and the ten or so that I send to Europe all had a letter with them.

Suppose in a few years time ecards will be the norm just as the kindle is taking over from printed books (programme about that on BBC1 last night).

I think the round robin is a good thing, but what do you think?

Thanks for reading this and I look forward to hearing your views.

Cheers

Sue

14-12-2011, 14:51	#1
susie123 Resting In Peace Join Date: Oct 2011 Location: Morecambe Posts: 4,208 Liked: 416 times Rep Power: 36416	Round robin - what do you think? I’m not talking fat birds here but the Christmas circular letter sometimes known as a round robin. Some people seem to dislike them and I have never been able to understand why. In our 35 years together my partner and I have moved about a bit so we have friend all over the place. Most of them we don’t see or hear from from one year’s end to the next though when we move house we tend to get a lot of visitors to check out our new place. Every year I send about a hundred Christmas cards as a way of keeping in touch and I compose a letter to go with them. We don’t have children or grandchildren to brag about, which is I think what annoys a lot of folk about these letters, it’s really just about our travels, what we’ve done in the garden, how the house refurbishment is going… This year I thought there would not be much to say as we have not been away, done no gardening as the garden was dug up for drainage work, and taken a breather from house refurbishment, but it seemed take as much space to say what we hadn’t done as what we had! The recipients seem pleased to get our letter, the alternative being no news as I couldn’t do 100 personal messages, and we usually get about ten in return, plus some hand written notes, and one or two letters after Christmas. One problem is that you’re usually responding to news that is at least a year old if you comment on last year’s letter, also as we get older (we are in our sixties) there is more sad news from other people. So far this year one friend has told us that her father had died (not unexpected as last year’s letter mentioned his decline), she and her son have broken their ankles and her son’s girlfriend had been diagnosed with breast cancer. And this friend is the one who most enjoys getting circular letters from people. Another 80 year old friend wrote that he had been in and out of hospital as the scar from the previous year’s heart surgery refused to heal. Yet he still sent a very positive letter full of family doings. Last year in April we had a letter from a firm of solicitors telling us that the intended recipient had died a year before! We have also had lots of good news about family weddings but so far this year no births. So I think these letters are a good thing as they keep us in touch and I like to receive them. I also like to get cards and display them to remind me of the senders. I don’t like it when folks send an e-card instead though I did email my letter to Canada, Oz and NZ to save postage. I still posted a card to my friends there though, and the ten or so that I send to Europe all had a letter with them. Suppose in a few years time ecards will be the norm just as the kindle is taking over from printed books (programme about that on BBC1 last night). I think the round robin is a good thing, but what do you think? Thanks for reading this and I look forward to hearing your views. Cheers Sue