I love them. They're so very mockable. Not to mention that they so frequently expose the prejudices of the writer--like the one we always get with the two pages of bragging about the son and just a sentence each for the daughters.

They're so very mockable

Totally. My Mom gets a few from folk she barely knows, and it's a family tradition for her to read them out with commentary added. Eg., if Doting Mother writes about little Jocasta taking the lead part in the school nativity play, my Mom will interpret this as proof that little Jocasta is being fiddled with by the drama teacher.

I wrote a Christmas letter two years ago.

And yea, I like to read the ones that are showing off, or the ones that are 5 pages of medical details I'd rather not know, or the ones that are soul crushingly embarassing (I remember one I read last year that mentioned son Joe and something to the effect of "Joe and Sally have agreed that it is not the Lord's will that they get married, so the engagement is off". OUCH!)

My parents always get a letter from former next-door neighbors that, as jrossi says, is imminently mockable. We laugh over it every year. They always talk about the wonderful cruises they went on for $25,000.

The wife of a guy my dad worked with 25 years ago still sends my parents letters too. I swear, the woman is the reincarnation of Eeyore. Her letters are filled with all of the horrible things that happened to her during the past year -- the dent in the fender of her new Lexus, etc.

Oh wow, I hate those. One of my great aunts used to send those out every year and no one was interested. Recently one of my uncles proposed a similar thing and was emphatically told "no" by the entire family.

If you're close to your fifth cousin twice removed, you'll know that she spent two weeks mentoring goldfish in Kurdistan in March or whatever. If you're not, then you're unlikely to care especially if, like the ones we used to get, I'd never even met these mysterious relatives of mine living abroad.

Still, those things are probably good for lighting fires with, so maybe they're not all bad.

I must admit, I generally like them. My grandparents send out a one page newsletter every year, that includes a line drawing of their children and grandchildren at the top (done by Aunt Pam, visual artist). I always love to see how I'm going to be drawn. There's a short mention of each grandchild- "Kate is working in New York City".

My favorites are the ones where they try to be clever. Like structuring the letter like Twas the Night Before Christmas or writing it from the family dog's perspective. It's almost always more sad than creative.

The fake letter/short story David Sedaris did in Holidays on Ice always cracks me the hell up.

David Sedaris' "Season's Greetings to Our Friends and Family!!! -- read by Julia Sweeney on 'This American Life.'

Oh yum, ericb! Thanks!

It'd be fun to see a metachat one written from the point of view of the logo about the past year here.

Oh, God they are awful. TheDonF nailed it: If you care about the info contained in a Christmas letter, you'll already know. I don't know which is worse -- the braggy ones about what kind of new car was purchased or the Debbie Downer ones about gall bladder surgeries.

I care, but only on the level that I'm nosy.

I don't recall anyone in my family doing that kind of thing, but it'd be fun to know what is going on with everyone. And, as mentioned, the mocking opportunities would be through the roof.

I always say the wrong thing, so I'm doing it all with pictures, and I finished the first one yesterday (today for you, or whatever). I went out with my son and gathered a bunch of fallen leaves and one twig, got a pad of colored construction paper from the ¥100 store, printed out about 15 kid pics, and in about two hours made a stick and elastic band photo book, gluing leaves around the pictures. Try it, it's cool.

I like the Christmas/Holiday newsletters. I'm not in touch with many of my cousins and I get confused where they are or what they're doing. Sometimes it's the only time I hear about any of them. We were doing a family newsletter on a fairly regular basis year-round, but it kept getting held up at various houses to the point where it only made the rounds once or twice a year. I honestly don't get newsletters much at all. And I can never think of what to put in one.