Round-robin letter
A round-robin letter or Christmas letter is a letter, typically included with a Christmas card and sent to multiple recipients at the end of the year, in which the writer describes the year's events for himself and/or his family.
The round-robin letter has been the subject of much ridicule, particularly from the Guardian journalist Simon Hoggart, who compiled examples of the genre in his newspaper column, as well as writing the book The Hamster That Loved Puccini: The Seven Modern Sins of Christmas Round-robin Letters. One example Hoggart cited read:
Critics have drawn attention to a number of typical negative characteristics of the letters, including the airbrushing of bad news, the "excruciating" level of banal detail, and the implied egocentricity and boastfulness of the sender.
