Christmas is a time of laughter and celebrations. It’s a time to get together with family and cherish happy memories while creating new ones, well, that is what it’s supposed to be on paper. In reality, the year’s nuggets holiday can be very chaotic.
Read these stories shared by strangers from all over the world as they discuss their experiences, experiences that ruined Christmas for them.
1. Lonely and Alone
My ex divorced me this year. The painful part was that the whole process was finalized on what would have been my 11th-year anniversary. She even took the kids and moved 900 miles away.
The truth is, I’m so sad all the time now. Even having my kids with me for Christmas, I feel empty because I know they will leave in no time. It’s not the same and all I want is my family back.
taviken
2. Down The Rabbit Hole
My girlfriend's sister ruined our Christmas. She has three young girls and a terrible choice of men and then she chooses today via a video of the kids to reveal to everybody that she is now dating a well-known junkie within our town.
She has a very addictive personality and has struggled to stay clean herself showing that she's a mess. My girlfriend is now ridiculously stressed out and worried for the kids.
BlackHammer1312
3. Heartbreak In A Storm
My story hurts to even think about still. I found out my wife was cheating on me at 11:30 PM Christmas Eve while we were at her parent's house, where we were going to celebrate the big day.
Immediately after, I packed up my stuff, walked right by her family who didn’t know what was going on, and drove 6 hours in a crazy rain storm to my parent's house. I have never felt so defeated as I did that day.
NateGrille
4. I Don’t Deserve This
Lung disease to ruin my Christmas by popping up the week before the big day. Imagine that. I’ve been an endurance athlete my whole life, no smoking and barely drank.
All my COVID tests were negative. So we did a CT scan that led to biopsies. I just got the results three days ago. I’m only 29 years old, just finished grad school, and landed my dream job three weeks ago.
xLabGuyx
5. Take It Easy Mom!
I guess you could say my mother ruined the big day for us all. She got belligerently drunk, locked herself in the closet, and claimed she was going to punish herself brutally.
She then threw up as my Dad and I were trying to drag her into her bed. As if all that wasn't enough, she then proceeded to get violent with me and kicked me in the face. So much for Christmas hey.
riverofdenali
6. Shameless Scammer
My grandma is into spiritist stuff, whatever, she's happy and it's not like the money she gives puts her well-being in jeopardy. We found out that the people to whom she's been giving money for years were scamming her for a very large amount of money.
My dad and uncles then stopped taking her to that place, and those scammers called her (from the place) and convinced her that her family wanted to do her harm. She was very sour and barely spoke to anyone, which added to the fact that Christmas was a very small meeting this year and some of us were there for less than an hour.
We're not sure if that can be legally denounced as scamming and it's very difficult to talk to my grandma about that subject. People were bitter and worried, it was a very tense meeting.
Knightmareco
7. Abandonment Issues
My mom decided that it is better for her and me that she is going to spend these holidays with her much younger boyfriend (15-17 years difference) in another city.
As this is happening, her second husband (my stepdad) is in a different country trying to work for us so he can help us with money and everything else. Imagine that. So here I am, barely 18, spending my first Christmas and New Year's Eve alone.
Dakan420
8. Come On, Mom
My mom was the one who ruined Christmas. She hid the fact she has multiple COVID symptoms. I was with her all night last night. I only found out because I heard her on the phone with my grandma asking her if she maybe has COVID.
I only agreed to come up because I missed Thanksgiving due to COVID being bad in their county. I felt guilt tripped into coming home for Christmas and now once I get back I’ll be quarantined and have to take time off work.
georgeharrisonyo
9. What Did He Eat?
I was planning to go spend Christmas with my mom and dad this year after my nine-year engagement broke off just before Christmas. I ended up just moving out, so I'm alone for the first time in nine years. Then my dog got a stomach bug.
He woke me up 3 times at night to go outside for a poo (he usually sleeps through the night no problem) and I discovered a pile of puke on his dog bed. It's not his fault, but I don't know if I can go anywhere today.
therealmoopdog
10. Buzzkill Cousin
My cousin ruined the day. He bought Chic-fil-A so he wouldn't have to eat our homemade meals, and announced upon arriving that he wasn't helping with anything.
He tried to trip acid all day on Christmas Eve and got drunk before noon by himself on that same day after I had told him no Christmas hallucinogens. Oh, and he drunkenly screamed in my face when I told him to clean up his dishes and beer cans.
[deleted]
11. Bigger Is Not Better
It's Christmas morning and I can hear my nephew, who lives in the apartment downstairs, throwing a temper tantrum because he thinks his sister got "larger gifts" from Santa this year.
His dad was so pissed. He just looked at him and said, "Are you joking right now? You better be joking. Say just kidding. Oh my god, tell me he's kidding." All this happened at just 8 am.
Oohkt
12. Throwing Stones In Glass Houses
Not this year, but last year my older sister was being a witch and talking down to me. "Seriously, when was the last time I even talked to you?" My reply was, "Huh, I'm not sure, maybe it was at your wedding a few months ago?"
She got married in May, divorced by July, now sitting next to her new boyfriend whom she's introducing to us for the first time. My parents were pissed that they left. I had a great time.
munkUhms
13. Geez, Travis!
Stupid Travis ruined my Christmas!! My friend is remodeling his kitchen and living room. Well, Travis (who does HVAC and electrical work) decided that it would be no big deal to go to work knowing that his wife was sick with COVID-19.
He exposed my dad who's a painter and my friend's dad who's a carpenter. Now we all have to be without our dad. Freaking Travis, you suck!!
liquidblue24
14. Painful Responsibility
Well, you decide. My dad was hospitalized for alcoholism recently and now that he's home, I'm the only family member left who will take care of him and help organize his care/life. My brother doesn't have any capacity to care whatsoever and is off having a happy little Christmas of his own.
I came to spend Christmas with my dad even though he was in a bad mood and argumentative about things. He has carers that come in four times a day between 7 am and 10 pm which does not change over the holidays.
During this time, I found that two expensive items had been stolen from his house last night (there are only carers that come in so it must have been them), had 2 hours of sleep last night because my dad has a searing toothache and today I've had to call the medical care line to book a dental appointment for Sunday for him.
All this means that I will have to extend my stay with him to take care of that and get him there, even though I can't drive. There's no Christmas dinner, nothing special at all, and I'm very tired.
Soundasleepx
15. No More Wagging Tails
Christmas is very hard for me this year because it’s my first one alone. My dog suddenly passed away earlier this month due to the sudden onset of aggressive cancer. It’s my first Christmas without him.
He loved Christmas more than me. He’d wake me up early because he knew what wrapped presents meant. He would lay by them waiting. He was such a good boy. I miss him.
theresmel
16. Denial, Denial, Denial
My mom's denial of her bipolar disorder. She is in full manic mode. I traveled 8 hours from another country to be with my parents on Christmas. I was supposed to stay for almost 2 weeks, but the atmosphere was so toxic I had to get out after 3 days.
I told them I was leaving, as I couldn’t handle her screaming, aggressivity, and overall nastiness. I wanted to help her so badly, but she flat-out screamed in my face that she wasn’t ill, this is who she was.
I have my own mental health issues and I couldn’t take it anymore because she was pouring verbal poison into me every minute I was with her. I sat on a bus back home and arrived at 3 am to my apartment, to spend Christmas alone.
Efilain
17. Overburdened
My Christmas was ruined because I had a lot of work to do. Well, I got left with building EVERY single toy set for my nephew. And, don't get this wrong, these aren't simple plug-in things as you might be thinking.
I'm talking about booklets with 7 bags of screws and wooden dowels that I have to twist and fit perfectly. It's 6 am and I still have one left. But that will have to wait.
da-bidness
18. Poor Brownie
My day was ruined because well, I woke up at 4:30 am to the sound of my dog throwing up. After cleaning up and snuggling with him, 6:00 am rolls around and he starts having shallow breathing. Had to rush to the vet.
I’ve been sitting in the vet ER parking lot since then and waiting for his exam to finish after being diagnosed with pneumonia and a $900 bill. All this on Christmas day.
chewyllama
19. Heart Breaker
Definitely not the worst experience one can have but well, this is my story. My long-term girlfriend, who I was going to spend Christmas with cheated on me.
When I tried to forgive her and gave her a chance to make it work she decided she simply wanted to end things there. Now I’m sitting here staring at the huge pile of gifts I’d got her wondering what the point is anymore.
thesedays2617
20. Missing Gift
My experience just made me hate mail service. I ordered a jersey for my brother on Oct 28th. It was supposed to be delivered by FedEx on Nov 2nd. It’s now Christmas and still has not been delivered.
I called FedEx and they said they’re handing it off to USPS and it isn’t their problem. The tracking says it’s still a state away and hasn’t been updated in over a month. I’m obviously a little annoyed.
peebs6
21. Contagious Coworker
My husband's alcoholic co-worker ruined my holiday. The dude has been packing into bars every day this whole pandemic and he got COVID. He took it with him to work and my husband got sick and brought it home to me.
So now rather than enjoying hosting family Christmas in our new house; we are both still so exhausted that our living room is overtaken with bedroom furniture that we don't have the energy to take upstairs. To add to that we ate frozen pizza on Christmas Eve because the idea of grocery shopping let alone cooking anything makes me want to cry.
FuzzyRoseHat
22. Gaslighting At It’s Finest
So it was a group effort of my parents. Last summer during quarantine, my mom decided to finally divorce my dad. My dad had been an alcoholic for a while, and eight or nine years ago my mom had decided not to divorce because my oldest sister (14 at the time) would have had to be the sober adult on the days that us three kids were with our dad. Now that I (the youngest) am almost out of high school, she felt it was safe for us kids to handle the divorce.
It's complicated and I've already rambled enough, so I'll just say that my mom has had enough of trying to make things work and my dad is in denial. He keeps thinking we can still work something out without going to a full divorce (he also blames himself for everything when it really just didn't work out).
A week or two ago, my dad gave me a very emotionally distressed text that was basically an ultimatum, telling me to choose between my two parents. This gave me an opportunity to stop going to his house every week and stay with my mom indefinitely. Now it's Christmas though, and we're spending Christmas morning at his house so that he's not alone like he was on Thanksgiving.
My dad means well, but he goes crying over every little thing, and being around him makes everyone in the family depressed. Let's see how this morning goes. I'm on my way now.
Briznar
23. Bad Call
I wouldn't say it ruined Christmas, but my cousin died almost a month ago and my aunt called my mom crying this morning because they have to do Christmas without her.
Sort of put a damper on everyone's mood. To be clear, I'm not blaming my aunt, it's just really sad. My mom was crying, my dad was crying...it's just hard.
When we have moments of joy, it makes me feel guilty because she's gone, and then I also feel really upset because I wish there was something I could have done. Just a sad time.
ThereGoesChickenJane
24. I Miss Her
My grandmother ruined Christmas for us all, in a way. How, you ask? Well, she died. I wish this was a joke, but she really did die peacefully on the morning of 12/24.
We think she waited specifically for that day because she knew we’d be together and our Christmas traditions would help us get through the tough day. And make no mistake, it was a tough day. I still miss her, and I know the rest do.
drbaby88
25. Gratitude Is A Virtue
So every year we go to our grandma's house (next door) and open the majority of our presents then come back to our house and open the rest. So over at our grandma's we only got like a couple of presents and half of them were clothes. Rock on for me because I needed some. But, my little brother (11) decided to say and loudly repeat "Can we go home, all I got was clothes. I want to go home!"
This looked so disrespectful to everyone because all he was thinking about was presents and he wasn't grateful. I got the same amount of clothes and the two other things I got there I thought were cool and made sure to SHOW my appreciation.
Sorry for the rambling, it was just annoying when everyone was doing their thing and I was the only one who heard him being ungrateful.
Elit3_Ghost
26. Stale Things
My wife ruined Christmas Day for both of us. She accidentally left the fridge open when we went to bed yesterday so we needed to throw away all our Christmas food. It had all gone bad.
I don't mind really, we celebrated by ourselves and our newborn so there was food for two. Things happen when you are tired. And the best part is that it's actually an ok excuse to go to McDonalds.
Aargloo
27. New Year, Same Stuff
My dad did it again, as he always does. He gave me a size extra large for Christmas (I'm a medium) and I will never fit into the stuff he buys me.
Despite this, I'm supposed to act really grateful or he throws an adult temper tantrum. At the end of the day, I usually just donate the clothes he gives me. He's pretty much given me the same fleece XL jacket every year since I was 15.
cactusflower4
28. Broken Bones, Broken Dreams
My mom's knee surgeon who broke her femur while applying a new prosthesis. Now I have to stay with her and my ailing father 24/7 because she's immobilized and can't care for him. So I don't get to be with my husband for Christmas—or most of December for that matter.
Oh, and also my mom is just a little bit for pitching a fit because she can't do Christmas the way she wants to despite the fact that she gets to see literally all of her loved ones.
Werehausen
29. Cut Wages
With the recent spike in cases, I was showing symptoms of COVID-19 and decided to get tested. The testing took two weeks and it took a paycheck from me and the last paycheck was about half what it usually is.
I came back last week so my next paycheck is today but the banks are closed. I have no money for both rent and to buy my large family stuff. It absolutely sucks and I feel horrible.
0assassin3
30. It Doesn’t Pay To Be Nice
For context me and my mother worked hard and waited months with help from Etsy to make a poster or a song my mom wanted to dedicate to my father, to show how much she cares. The poster had all the lyrics from My Man by Lynn Anderson. It also had pictures of them on their wedding day.
Anyway, we all opened presents last night and were so excited for my dad to see our gift. He smiles and doesn't say anything. Hours later my mother came into my room bawling her eyes out because my father said "I hate it. It looks like a kindergartener wrote it, I felt disrespected as soon as I saw it."
I was livid and confronted him by asking "Why do you hate it?" And he says the same thing. He then tells me to go away and not ask him for anything ever again.
The next thing we heard was the poster being ripped from the frame and I found it ripped to pieces. (My mom ripped it up in anger and sadness she also ripped up their wedding photo on the poster). So once again another Christmas down the drain.
SanguineFan
31. Really Now?!
My boyfriend’s family left him alone on Christmas. He begged me to stay with him, but it’s a tradition that I always stay at my mom’s house. I invited him to stay with me, and instead of being grateful, he came into the house and fought with me about going with him.
He ended up locking himself in my room and refusing to leave, even when my parents were trying to make him leave. They bought presents for him and made food and drinks for him.. he didn’t even take them because he wanted his way so badly. I didn’t get to enjoy my Christmas Eve at all... spent the whole day crying.
cand3lynn3
32. Public Brawl
My girlfriend ruined Christmas. She has a drinking problem and decided hey let me get crap faced at my first Christmas with my boyfriend's family.
Don’t get me wrong she’s a fun drunk up to a certain point but once she passes that threshold she’s a clumsy, emotional, angry, bully and goes the extra mile to make a statement, except the statement makes no sense ever. What makes it worse is that not understanding her infuriates her and then the arguments begin… BUT IT DOESN'T END THERE.
Instead of letting me try to diffuse her outburst she attacks me verbally and says some of the most messed up stuff and because I’m no punching bag I attack back and we went into a verbal free for all and now I’m single. We broke up on Christmas at a family gathering.
Captain_CrunchYaAss
33. I Blame Myself
In a way I guess I ruined Christmas, but I don’t care. It was for me. To begin with, I probably blame myself for overlooking decades of sacrificing my safety and boundaries to be a part of my parent's family.
So I'm not contacting them, and I won't respond if they try to contact me. I'm a crappy person for it, but at least no one I'm related to is going to hit me, threaten me, or tell me to go screw myself.
caffeinecunt
34. Screw The Pandemic
Does Tannie Covid count? It should because it absolutely ruined our day. My mom works in the UK and the rest of us live in South Africa. She was supposed to fly down near the end of this month but, because of Covid, it's too risky for her to fly.
It'll be a year in January since we've seen her in person. We heard the bad news a few days before Christmas so the mood was pretty bleak this morning.
lordofthepages
35. Caretaker Mess
Do you know who ruined my Christmas day? Well, none other than my 90+-year-old grandfather (I've been his caretaker for the last few months).
He pulled a weapon on me this week and called me the "greatest disappointment of his whole life" and a "worthless piece of crap".... even though I just got into medical school this year. Took all the joy right out of the holiday.
Woofles13
36. Keep Your Kids At Home!
The person who sent their kid to school with Covid right before Christmas break is the one person who ruined the day for me. Their reason for doing this? Well, because they didn’t want their kid to miss precious finals.
Thanks to them, my whole family gets to spend Christmas with Covid. It’s not allergies, people. Keep your sniffling kid at home. It’s not rocket science.
MrGradySir
37. Spiteful Man
My ex and I had decided our kids would spend Christmas Eve with me, and that he would pick them up on Christmas Day. Last night he texted me saying that he would be at my house in 15 minutes to pick them up because technically this was his day to have them.
This is true, our stipulation says they are to go with him every other Thursday and we never put anything in about holidays (I thought we could be civil and work them out as needed, and now I’m kicking myself for being so naive). I had to hand over my sobbing, confused 2 and 5-year-old daughters to him in their Christmas pajamas.
Before this, he hadn’t had them over to his house in over a month. This was purely to hurt me, and it worked.
sixteen_miles
38. My Dog, My Best Friend
We went to exchange gifts at our in-law's Christmas Eve. I stayed outside for a brief amount of time and wore a mask to be safe.
In May our family adopted a rescue puppy, a very hyper breed. It's still a puppy at 5 months old. Father-in-law keeps a 4-year-old lab they never trained or socialized. We didn't plan on bringing our dog around their dog so as to not pick up bad habits, and the age difference. FIL thought it'd be cute to let them play.
Instantly, the puppy goes into play mode. Running in circles and jumping on the lab. Normal behavior mind you, but to the FIL this was viewed as violent. The lab was clearly uncomfortable so was the owner so I called for my dog and she came.
As my dog was prancing back to me, FIL shouted at my 5-month-old puppy, yelling "Bad dog."
[deleted]
39. What food is that?
Who ruined my Christmas day? Well, me! I caught Covid 10 days before Christmas day. My entire household then managed to get sick from me.
We couldn't go shopping to get Christmas dinner and everyone was too sick to wrap presents. I also lost my sense of smell and taste, so Christmas dinner might not be too good. But there's always next year. Merry Christmas to all.
Cribtopia
40. The Pain of Loss
My wife's grandmother died a few days ago from COVID. They were extremely close. Subsequently, she's been an emotional and angry wreck, and I've been doing everything (including not sleeping) to try to keep this season afloat for her. It's been a monumental challenge in patience and letting her say very angry things knowing she needs to.
Well, last night we hung out with her parents, at the end of a basically 4-day stretch of not sleeping, and I couldn't take it any further and passed out on the floor of her parent's place when I told her I just needed a few minutes to keep functioning. We got to our home at about 1 am and she exploded in anger at me, telling me I was weak and "not husband material" for being tired, that I had no idea what she was going through, threw her engagement ring at me, and told me to sleep in the car.
We're supposed to see my parents today. The last thing she told me was that she didn't want to waste her time seeing my awkward family today.
DoctorDEM
41. Get A Hold of Yourself
My older brother is a junkie, he and his girlfriend came over to the house for Christmas Eve. They were both high on some sort of stimulant and wouldn't shut up or stop arguing with each other.
One thing led to another, words were said and he attacked me, I promptly choked him out, cause he's a weak junkie. His GF was attacking me when I did it, so I got up afterward and threw her outta the house with her boots and jacket thrown out behind her. My brother woke up and left as well, later that night they got the police called on them cause people could hear them screaming at each other through their apartment walls.
When the cops came, my brother tried to break his own arm on the bathroom towel hanger to say the cops did it. It didn’t work cause all he got was a hospital ride from my mom at 3 am to go get it looked at in emergency services. MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!
gravygotch
42. Follow The Rules
My brother ruined Christmas for us all this year in a very big way. He ignored all the guidelines and got COVID-19 on Saturday and he spread it all to my 68-year-old dad.
So on the 24th which is when my family celebrates Christmas, my dad had to go to the hospital due to respiratory issues. Christmas was ruined and all this is because one lousy person ignored the guidelines.
limilly
43. Can’t Catch A Break
My kids' mom, and the US NAVY ruined my Christmas. When my kid was 9 my ex shopped him around to doctors trying to get a diagnosis so she could put him on disability and collect a check. She got a quack to claim he was schizophrenic and had Psychosis with Aspergers. All lies.
She would read up on what she wanted and lead the doctor to the result she was looking for. After getting custody of him, I had his previous diagnosis thrown out and he was judged to be a normal kid with some emotional trauma. Fast forward to this year, my son joins the Navy.
We were upfront with his recruiter about everything, and they said don’t worry about it. It won’t show up, and he’ll be fine. He shipped out for basic in November. They found his records from 12 years ago and disqualified him. Now he’s been separated at boot and sent to ship 5 awaiting discharge and a plane ticket home. He’s devastated and angry.
We hoped he would be home for Christmas, but he might get home by New Year’s Eve. So once again our Christmas was ruined by the ghost of the witch's past. Just the latest of many.
SexyWampa
44. A Midnight Mess
My partner had to stay up late working last night, so I did too. When he finally gets done and goes to bed at 1 am, I stay up to stuff his stocking real quick and put the dog to bed. No sooner did he lay down than I knocked his stocking over, which then fell and knocked over the plug-in wax warmer full of hot fresh red wax which then SPLASHED all over the wall, hardwood floor, and BF's stocking. The stocking he still has from his first Christmas. It's literally 40 years old.
Hearing the commotion, he came running out of the bedroom and l yelled at him to stay back there, that I was cleaning up a mess I made but it's fine I'm taking care of it. I had to literally beg him to stay back there and not come out to the veritable murder scene I'd just made of our delightful little Christmas display.
2 hours later (3 am) the wax is scraped from the floor. It's scraped from the wall as well but has stained it red. Good thing I bought some matching paint last year after we had to get into the wall to find a stud because those stains are now painted over. You'd never guess what horror was there just an hour ago.
I saved his stocking for last. I was sure it was a lost cause, the thing was almost like felt. By some divine stroke of luck, the wax only spilled on the back, which is also red. I almost left it, but thought, no, I gotta try. So, I grabbed an iron, and an old rag and got to work. 10 minutes later there's not a trace of wax on the old thing.
Then I calmly swept up the bits of dried wax I'd peeled and scraped, put the paint stuff away, alcoholed the paint off my hands, put the dog to bed, and put out the champagne and hors d'oeuvres (a silly inside joke tradition we have). So yes, I ruined Christmas but then I saved Christmas. It was a wild ride.
snarfdarb
45. First Impressions Last
My sister, her boyfriend, and their young dog came to our house for Christmas. It was the first time we met her boyfriend. My mom got drunk (she gets drunk very easily) before they arrived, so by the time we all sat by the table, she was almost unconscious.
The three of us tried to have a normal Christmas, but my mom was constantly mumbling and trying to say something all the time, making everything really uncomfortable, meanwhile, the dog was constantly trying to hump my mom.
The thing that really ruined everything was when she dropped a wine glass, she got up, did a 360, and fell on the floor hitting her head. She got up, laid down on a couch next to us, and after a few minutes, she kept asking me who the people in our living room were.
The three of us cleaned everything up and hopped in the boyfriend's car. They were going home, but I asked for a ride to the city center because I really didn't want to be home. So yeah, ruined Christmas and probably the worst first impression my mom could make.
Tommer53