Posted on 12/16/2006 1:25:24 PM PST by rightwingintelligentsia
Tis the season to get flooded with Christmas letters — often a litany of bombastic bragging disguised as holiday cheer.
When we asked you to share some of the most outrageous letters you've received, we got a multitude of replies, ranging from missives proclaiming the joy of a $5,000 pool table to a week-by-week recounting of children's activities. While some of you saw the humor in them, they sucked the Christmas spirit right out of many of you.
"I hope we don't hear from her again," wrote one reader who is fed up with a niece bragging about her escalating paychecks.
At the other end of the spectrum are the anti-holiday joy letters — those copied correspondences recounting personal details of messy divorces, memorializing deceased pets and reviewing all physical maladies endured throughout the year.
One daughter demanded her mother recall her letter after she realized it disclosed the daughter's broken engagement and unhappy job situation.
One reader came up with her own way of handling those postal intrusions: "We used to have a dramatic reading every New Year's Eve of the top runners for most outlandish Christmas letter. Then we would vote and all would be ceremoniously burned."
(Excerpt) Read more at msnbc.msn.com ...
Thought I'd ping you since you're the one who sent me this article--it's so true.
Well, they do not teach taste ["good breeding", as it used to be called] any more. What would you expect then?
"We used to have a dramatic reading every New Year's Eve of the top runners for most outlandish Christmas letter. Then we would vote and all would be ceremoniously burned."
This has got to be part of the "FESTIVUS" tradition, it so fits.
I keep getting an unbearable "Holiday" letter from somebody I haven't seen nor talked to in 17 years. (I used to work with the the dad.) It is the most pompous thing of the season, talking about how elite the kids' education is, how many languages they speak/instruments they play, etc. The kids are now college age and out of the house! I quit reciprocating with a card several years ago, but they still write.
Sure, I don't have to open it, but that's like passing a car wreck without looking!
Maybe I should try that last tactic in the MSNBC article.
The complaint about the Christmas Letter is even worse than the Letter itself!
I think the moral of the article is, don't send Christmas letters to people who only pretend to care about you and your family.
I got one for Christmas 2004 from someone who went on and on about how miserable she'd been since election day and how much she hates President Bush. I got a good laugh out of that one.
I like to know what people and their families are doing, and if their many achievements invite me to feel inadequate, well, that's my problem.
oh i love the last "get even" letter!
Well, tis the season to drink straight from the bottle...LOL
i always drink water straight from the bottle ;)
Good humor bump.
I'm reminded of one Christmas missive I received: "Jack enjoyed directing the Little Theatre production in August. A shame he fell off the stage and broke his leg."
I'm in college so I don't get too many Christmas letters bragging about how great life is. But this does remind me of what happened to my buddies when they asked this girl how her day was, they recieved a 20 minute rundown of her day (which wasn't complete it was only the afternoon). They tried to stop her by going to the convenience store, she hopped right in with them and without missing a breath continued on with her story. I guess it teaches them that not every gives a "fine" and moves on.
btt
Yeesh. A heads up to anyone who sees a person at work or school and innocently asks, "So how are you?"
Some people are polite enough to realize it's usually a rhetorical question; others may take it literally and start talking about Aunt Mabel's bypass surgery or a parent's affair....
I like to know what people and their families are doing, and if their many achievements invite me to feel inadequate, well, that's my problem.
Same here Red, I'm happy to hear that people I know are happy and successful. I don't know what the big deal is other than sour grapes.
"Yeesh. A heads up to anyone who sees a person at work or school and innocently asks, "So how are you?""
That is why years ago, I stopped asking people, how are you or how you doing. I don't want to hear the gory details.
Worse than the letter, is the assumption that we're interseted.
GSD
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