The holidays are meant to be spent with the people you care about most in the world. It’s a time for warmth, introspection, and taking a well-deserved break from the stress of leading a hectic life. Unfortunately, things rarely go as planned. And many people find that once Xmas rolls around, they’re left frustrated and drained.
The r/AskReddit community recently opened up about who ruined their Christmas celebrations and how. We’ve collected some of their most intriguing stories to share with you, Pandas. Scroll down to read about just how bad things can get and how lucky most of us are that this hasn’t happened to us.
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Though the winter holidays can be full of joy, merriment, and happiness, for many folks, stress is an ever-present reality, too.
According to the American Psychological Association, 41% of US adults have revealed that their stress levels increase during the holiday season between November and December. 43% of respondents claim that this stress prevents them from enjoying the holidays to the fullest. Meanwhile, 36% of Americans opened up about how the holidays “feel like a competition.”
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A lot of things are outside of our control. Surprise blizzards. Transportation delays. People falling ill. But what we can control is how we react to all of these unfortunate circumstances. We can choose to let them get us stressed, frustrated, and angry beyond belief. Or we can embrace what’s happened and try to look for a silver lining. Or look for some comedy in the situation.
You can still have an enjoyable time even if you’re stuck in a traffic jam or your flight’s been delayed (for the third time that day). You can use the time to meet interesting people, read a good book, catch up on the news, eat some delicious food, or call your loved ones. Xmas is only ever truly ruined if we let it be that way.
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As we’ve covered on Bored Panda very recently, if we see that the current way we’re celebrating Christmas isn’t doing us any good, we need to have the courage to change things.
If you find that your family traditions are stressing you out and that it’s unpleasant to spend time with certain people, we should not feel guilty about switching up the dynamic next year. We are not supposed to feel completely exhausted and angry once we’re done celebrating.
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What we should do instead is focus on the activities and people that genuinely bring us joy. And it’s never wrong to talk to your family and friends about how you’re going to be doing things differently next time and why.
How did you enjoy the holidays this year, dear Pandas? What kinds of family traditions do you have? Have you ever had a Christmas that got ruined in the past? Did you manage to salvage it in some shape or form back then? Share your experiences and opinions in the comment section below.
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Ellen at my mum’s work. She went to the Christmas lunch sick, turned out she had Covid and now so does my mum and three other colleagues. Because of Ellen at least 6 high risk people have been exposed and all three family Christmases are cancelled. I’m extremely f*****g unimpressed with your work ethic Ellen.Entire family ruined it by uninviting me to Christmas because my aunt was offended I got vaccinated.My cat of 16 years died this morning in his sleep. Didn't tell my 7 year old son because of Christmas. He is sleeping over his grandmothers house tonight and we are going to tell him tomorrow. We are devastated losing a family member, and I am dreading telling the poor kid.Grandma forgot where she hid the presents. Haven’t found them yet.Technically happened last night but my cat tripped my mother and she broke her arm on the way down.
The ER had a surprisingly short wait time though.
Cat is fine and he has no regrets.My brother by existing. My family flew into Paris from one country, he flew in from another, and had a complete mental breakdown because no one came to the airport to escort him to our Airbnb and ordered him an Uber instead. He proceeded to scream and abuse my parents, stating that they abandoned him and left him to fend for himself in the wild unknown that is CDG airport. He then threatened to leave immediately and refused to leave his room, not even to eat, as a form of protest for my parents being so horrible to him.
He is 35 years old, and my parents bought his tickets and this trip is on their dime entirely.My husband by telling me at dinner that he should have been informed of all my mental health problems before we got together. He said this after I’d spent the previous three hours preparing the dinner he was eating. The irony is he’s chronically ill and hasn’t worked since 2014. Most of my current mental health issues come from being his caregiver and breadwinner.My dad telling me (a white mom) that I better not make my daughter (black) look ghetto with corn rows. She’s 13 months old and he hasn’t held her, barely acknowledges her. Prob bc she’s black and I’m finding out more and more how racist he is. He won’t be back to my house now. He’s 89 and he can p**s off.My mom told everyone that there’s not going to be anymore babies in the family anyway, so my sister can throw away my son’s crib.
I am actively trying to get pregnant and have been taking steps and working on my health to make it happen as I had cervical cancer last year and a few other uterine issues. And for those wondering, yes, she and everyone else in the room is aware of all of this.My ex. Told me she was going to stay the night at her mom's house on Christmas Eve because she missed her. I said yes that's your mom, go spend time with her and that we'd met up in the morning. Her mom is calling me Christmas morning asking to speak with her and that she couldn't get ahold of her. I said she should be over there, correct. Her mom said nope she hasn't seen her all night. That's how I found out she was cheating on me.
Edit: Thanks everyone for your words. I'm doing fine and will be ok through it all. Going to be living with family for a bit. And for anyone curious, we were together for 5 years.80 year old uncle ruined Christmas Eve with family (had to cancel). He got lost while hunting, but not terribly far from road. He heard my brother in law and my grandfather searching for him but was embarrassed so waited to come out at sunrise after everyone went home after hours of searching but before everyone came back (or so he thought). My 80 year old grandfather, uncles brother, had open heart surgery heart this year and is going through radiation for cancer and couldn't sleep all night thinking his brother died in the woods. Grandfather and other older family members ended feeling so bad from stress we had to cancel.I gave my little girl a drone. It went up in the air the first time and just kept going and going and going. That was like 8 hours ago. Could still be going….Mom got hammered Christmas eve and woke up for a midnight snack of the Christmas dinner. Left it all out and the dog ate it allDrove 4 hours to spend the day with my dad (at his request 3 weeks ago) then immediately after lunch, not even dinner, he said he and his new girlfriend (of 4 weeks) were invited to a friend’s dinner and were going there. My drive was longer than the time spent he spent with me at his house. So now I’m watching Christmas movies and drinking with my grandma instead. After trying fix our relationship that’s been rocky since I was a teenager (now in my 30s), it’s great to realize he truly doesn’t careGirlfriend stayed the night. Went to her place this am. Found her cat dead. Had been fighting an illness but had seemed much better.
Wouldn’t say ruined Christmas. Just a sad end of the day.My mom. Screaming at and in front of everyone (including the kids and my elderly grandmother who came out of hospital this morning) that she doesn't want to be a full-time carer for my grandmother. No one asked her to care for my grandma. For the past few years Mom has been asking grandma for her inheritance early so she could buy a house, grandma always said no. Mom moved in with grandma a month ago and now wants grandma to move out so mom can live in the house alone rent free. Where grandma is supposed to go is beyond me as mom has refused to participate in plans for a care home etc because it will likely involve selling the house to pay for this.My sister brought her dog who immediately walked over and threw up all over my kid's presents as if he'd been planning to do that all year.Not my Christms ruined, but my friends. Her parents left home to stay in Florida, they were supposed to come back for Thanksgiving. They did not come back. Her parents were supposed to come back yesterday, Christmas Eve to spend time with their kids. They did not. Her parents left her (17), her sister (an adult but legally blind), and her grandmother (who literally just had a stroke and is in the hospital) alone. No financial support, the only person bringing in money is her. She couldn't even celebrate christmas with her family, just her sister. For the past few nights my family has invited her to dinner to help out. I feel so bad for her, no teenage girl should have to go through such stressful events without the support of her parents during Christmas.Norovirus. Was up all night with a vomiting 6 year old and I had to “sleep” on the floor in their room. He last vomited about 4:30am today.
Stripped the vomit-covered sheets and showered him in the middle of the night because he was covered. My hips are killing me from sleeping on the floor. Merry Christmas!My dad just ruined Christmas dinner for me. I was switching two chairs at the dinner table -one with arms was too tight against the table and next to impossible to get into. He literally hollered at me for moving the chair. Apparently he’d done some measuring and was getting a few extra chairs that he thought would only fit a certain way, and was already mad that no one had put the extra leafs in the table. Which I knew nothing about, I was just going to sit next to my kid. It was goddamn humiliating, I know I shouldn’t be the one who was embarrassed and I tried to shake it off but found my eyes welling up with tears anyway. I’m going thru a divorce from my emotionally abusive husband of 20 years and he’s being awful about our 12 year old and I’m just more emotionally fragile than I realized. The drunk a*****e that was joyriding last night and totalled my car in a hit and run did a good job of ruining my day.I drove 12 hours to get “home” to my dad’s house, staying 5 days because he guilts me for never staying more than 2 nights. I’m divorced, with grown kids (they were coming in later) so it’s just me and him for the first three days.
My first day here… he tells me at noon he’s leaving at 1:30 because he has plans with his lady friend. He invites me to dinner at her house, but tells me he’s spending the night there. I decline the dinner, and plan to have a solo day in my hometown. Annoying he ditched me, but whatever.
I spend my day running errands, come back to his place early, order my favorite local takeout, wrap presents and fall asleep on the couch…
THIS MF’R… at 5:30am he feels like something isn’t right, and checks his home thermostat app on his phone. He sees the temp at an egregious 71°. Knowing he set it to 68°, he’s SURE I have fallen asleep upstairs, left the gas logs on, and the house is about to burn down with me in it… so he does what any 72 year old would do with a 45 year old son staying at his place…
THE MAN COMES HOME AND JERKS ME OUT OF MY SLEEP ON THE COUCH AND RIPS ME A NEW A*****E. I’m talking veins in the neck bulging, spittle flying while he’s yelling type of new a*****e. For 3°!?!? He then spends FIVE HOURS questioning me on everything about my career, personal life, mental health, etc… truly riding my a*s.
So yeah, probably the last Christmas I ever “come home.”My wife did by immediately after opening all the presents, tell me how disappointed she is in what I got her. Or I guess I did by buying her s****y presents depending on your point of view.
Update to answer some questions:
We’ve been married for 25 years
Most of the gifts were from her Christmas list. She was unhappy that I didn’t also buy things not from the list.
Creative things I’ve surprised her with in the past.
Once I got her favorite artist (Dar Williams) to call her for her birthday.
For her 50th I surprised her with a convertible Vw beetle
I’ve surprised her by flying her friends out to stay with us for Christmas a few years ago.
It’s not that i can’t be creative. I just wasnt this yearPut my husband and kids on a plane to go join the rest of our family on vacation while I drove 12 hours in the opposite direction to be with my dying dad.Grandparents told everyone how they get one person something really nice each year and that it was finally my turn. They 'gave' me the really nice big green egg and patio desk i was saving for. Then after they looked real nice to everyone and everyone else was gone they told me it was actually a loan and I would need to pay them to keep it. I told them to f**k off.My parent's puppy managed to open and eat half a jar of THC body balm and had to be taken to the emergency vet at 1 am. She threw up a large mango sized menthol dog treat vomit ball in my hand. She got meds and monitored and is doing much .much better nowNot my morning but my night. I just caught my old man of 14 years with another woman.Me. Halfway thru opening gifts with the family, I was in enormous pain. Wound up spending most of the day in the ER. Kidney stones. I could have done without this gift/surprise.Brother in Law. 12:06am. Breakfast casserole knocked out of the fridge and all over the floor as he was reaching for another midnight snack. Six minutes flat, impressive.It's me. I'm the problem. I got my kid a VR headset. I let him open it last night.... I played it for 4 straight hours this morning and left him sleeping in late so he wouldn't take it away. We were the last to arrive and just barely on time for my family thing.My two year old. When I got him up this morning, he kept saying "A mess, a mess". I thought he meant his toy tractor, which had something stuck to the wheels. While cleaning it, I couldn't figure out what it was, and then I thought to check his room. He had thrown up. Everywhere.
On his bed, blankets, pillows, play mat, rocking chair, ect. I woke up my husband and we started cleaning. Partway through it got to me and I started throwing up. (I'm three months pregnant so can't handle stuff like that) My husband had to finish cleaning alone, and shampooing the chair and mattress. Not how we imagined starting Christmas!My mom invited my ex-girlfriend to the family zoom (because she's still family?). My Girlfriend of two years wasn't too stoked to meet her.My mother. She screamed at my dad like a banshee at about 6am. All my dad did was put water in the coffee maker. When you put water in, it immediately starts brewing. I guess that was too early in the morning to start the coffee? I’m not exactly sure what her beef was.
For context: For the first time in several years,
my entire immediate family were all under one roof for an extended period of time. We were staying at my grandmother’s house for the holidays. My mother has always been prone to fits of rage. Growing up, she exploded often. I haven’t been around it in 9 years, neither have my brothers, but we got an ugly reminder of her behavior yesterday morning.
My dad doesn’t believe in divorce. He works nights to avoid her. They pass like ships in the night. They have separate bedrooms and separate lives. My dad’s uncle just passed away, that’s why we all came together. We typically don’t celebrate Christmas together.
I overpaid to fly home today, and I opted out of Christmas dinner to do so. I left two days before everyone else. I can’t do it. It’s as if she’s possessed by a demon.Boomer grandparents exploded into a religious fit because i have a ball python... f*****g stupid.My 11 year old son, except he doesn’t know it. I LOVE Christmas and I tend to go over board every year with my kids. (I over compensate for my lack of ever having a happy Christmas time growing up). My son is at the age of making inappropriate jokes all the time ( I had no idea you could make that many ball jokes in one day) Anyways we were trying to watch movies as a family and he was sent to his room due to him being asked to stop repeating the same joke over and over because he wasn’t getting a reaction. Well he went on a rant about it being child abuse and us favoriting his 14 year old sister more. This is his usual insult when punished. He screams child abuse at the littlest inconvenience. Apparently this is a trigger for me I was physically, mentally and at one point sexually abused as a child. Knowing that he had probably $1,000 worth of things under the tree for him to open the next morning just kinda broke me. I cried myself to sleep last night and I didn’t want to get up the morning.My FIL who texted my husband this morning and asked if I was pregnant again, because the entire family decided I looked a little round at Christmas Eve dinnerI just got a text from my a*****e stalker. He won’t leave me alone even though I haven’t spoken to his significant other in almost 3 years. He just has to keep harassing me.Both cats scarfed and barfed. Getting out the carpet cleaner was not in the plans today.
