Anonymous wrote:I did mine and talked about travel in Asia we did this year and a few highlights about each family member.. I don't think of it as bragging; in fact I think older relatives enjoy reading about that and looking at the pictures. But really I keep them year after year. They are a nice sweet record of our lives. I love looking back at the ones my mom did of us when we were young.

My dad one year gathered up all the Christmas letters they had sent out, starting before I was born when they just had my brother, to my sister, to me, and had them bound and titled 'The History of the XYZ Family." It was 25 years of these letters, and we got to read "little Jane is starting to walk" and "Joey started school" and all this life stuff. I still have this bound version and I love it! I'm glad you're saving them - your kids will really like it some day!

I don't even send cards. Waste of time and money and paper. When will this tradition die?

Even funnier is the cards with the wife's hyphenated last name

I stopped sending cards last year. I'm so sick of photo cards ( and I have cute kids who can pose for cards too) but they are so overdone. Won't send cards this year and don't care about getting them... Labels computer generated and no personal message.. Might as well be junk mail. I talk to and see the people I want to keep in touch with.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I got my first one today. if I went into detail it would give them away. We love to laugh at them and share them with our family. Thanks for over sharing.

You are a bad friend. You know that, right?

Yes, yes I am. I choose not to brag about our kids, our awesome vacations or my new car.

I received one last year that did the standard chit-chat of then informed me that the sender had leukemia and would be dead in two months. It was typed and sent out to all her friends. Then the family cat died. Then my aunt. Well, they say bad things come in threes. I sure won't ever forget that "humble brag" letter. I cried buckets.

Anonymous wrote:I did mine and talked about travel in Asia we did this year and a few highlights about each family member.. I don't think of it as bragging; in fact I think older relatives enjoy reading about that and looking at the pictures. But really I keep them year after year. They are a nice sweet record of our lives. I love looking back at the ones my mom did of us when we were young.

I think this is right. I've never done them before, but I think this year I'm going to do a one-pager that gets sent just to family -- not to friends. I actually think a lot of my aunts, uncles, etc will enjoy it. I actually really do like reading other people's.

Anonymous wrote:Picture of new mcmansion with family.posing in two story foyer

Love it! I'd prefer the fireplace but. Where would you stage the picture?

This year I am going to talk about our dog that bit my DD on the face and we had to him him to sleep. Oh, and my mom has colon cancer and might not live till January.

Stop the brag!

This year I will be writing about how glad we are to finally have jobs. I will nix the part about how we can barely make ends meet with the pay cut DH had to accept.

Is that humble braggy enough but without too much whining?

Really, just let people write what they want and appreciate that you have been remembered and are receiving a card at all.

I find people in this area especially bitter. Misery does in fact, love company.

Anonymous wrote:I especially enjoy personalized cards emblazoned with

Merry Christmas from The Smith's!

or, worse, Smith's/Smith's/Smith's printed in an artful pattern.

I would welcome a card from The Smiths or just from Morrissey!

I especially enjoy personalized cards emblazoned with

Merry Christmas from The Smith's!

or, worse, Smith's/Smith's/Smith's printed in an artful pattern.

You people are strange.... do you really want to know the "real" stuff going on with a family? Wether SIL cheated or son was arrested for stealing? Or that granddaughter has a drug problem or had an abortion? On a xmas card?

I certainly don't! Please spare me of all the sad stuff on x-mas card. If we are close enough, I will know about your problems anyway and I will be there for you. But if we are not close enough for this level of detail, just tell me how aunt Germina finally got to go on a trip to Europe and how happy she is. That is what I want to hear in a xmas card!

I think I'd prefer the full-stop brag to the humble-brag variant that purports to be humorous or self-deprecating, but is really just a bigger brag (gee, isn't my perfect family especially "blessed" that I have such a fine-honed sense of irony)?

Sorry to be misanthropic. I really dread this time of year and this year has been particularly tough. January won't come soon enough.