My cousins got a mini bounce house and it popped with like 10 kids inside -- all of them under 8 years old. The amount of crying broke my eardrums.

My mother in law tried to feed my eldest child mango, which she’s been allergic to for the past 11 years. My eldest said, “What are you doing??!! Grandma I’m allergic!” Grandma said, “It’ll be okay, it’s Christmas.”

Um, no. Food allergies don’t take Christmas off you idiot.

My dad and his siblings fighting over my recently passed grandmother’s house

My grandma HAD a Will. Something happened to the attorney so he didn’t contact us until just a few hours ago. Apparently, the house goes to ME. And the rest of her assets are divided between me, my brother and my 2 cousins. I really don’t know what am I gonna do

I’m in my Grandma’s house with my brother, my best friend and one of my college professors who gladly accepted to help me out (I’m a freshman law student btw). We’ll see what’s my best course of action so that my dad, uncles and aunts can’t do anything to obstruct me getting the house. I’m probably going to rent it to get some money and then God knows.

I really miss my grandma and really hope my family can work this out, especially because neither my dad or his siblings got the house.

Me. I ruined Christmas.

I was invited to a lovely dinner by my boss with his extended family. I was promoted to manager for his company within the last month. The business is very small, (5 employees) and he learned that I would be spending Christmas alone and didn’t want that to happen.

Everything went amazingly well, even though I was nervous. I didn’t drink anything due to medications, yet still managed to vomit profusely all over his car when he was giving me a ride home.

I think the cause was most likely motion sickness; I live in a large city and haven’t needed to be in a car for a very long time, this being the first in about a year.

I was trying to open the door or window, but they were possibly safety locked, as he has recently had a baby.

I offered to have the car cleaned and he said “no worries, more just worried if you are okay.” Seriously lucked out with best boss ever.

My dad called my girlfriend a slur when we went over to visit (she's Honduran). Kinda had to leave after that one, especially when he refused to apologize because "that's what they're called."

My sister. She's having a mental breakdown and was very much in a "if I can't be happy, everyone else has to suffer" mood.

She was already in therapy a five days a week, out-patient treatment center, but it really wasn't helping. And we'd all have to deal with her when she would get home.

Thankfully, as of a few days ago, she's finally agreed to get extra help, so that's a step forward. We don't know exactly what is next, but we're all hoping her agreeing to this is the first step in getting better, and it's our family's Christmas miracle.

My cousin stole my $250 over Christmas. Once she got caught she said: “But I need it and she is too spoiled anyways.” She then proceeded to get half of it after crying and throwing a fit. She literally refused to give it back until she got a share of the money she had stolen. After all that I still don’t know why her parents don’t punish her since they're actually half decent. I'm still beside my half.

My niece and nephew’s uncle on the other side of the family. His car was found randomly abandoned on the side of the road this morning, phone inside, vomit in the car, back tire shredded. Whole family had to go out looking for him. He also didn’t bother to get his own children any presents because “they were stolen out of his car.” Whatever you say, man.

He’s fine. Just an idiot. They found him at a friend’s house, and then brought him home. This is by no means his first instance of selfish or reckless behavior, just a first for Christmas.

Typhoon ripped through my family's hometown in another country, 8 hour time difference. Spent the whole of Christmas day refreshing for updates. We went 36 hours without getting any news. I was going crazy waiting.

My extended family from overseas live in the Philippines. Our home village was really badly hit by Typhoon Hainan in 2013, and while this one wasn't as strong it has still caused widespread damage to areas that simply cant afford to rebuild again.

I also got a very quick message from one of my cousins! Everyone is alive thank goodness but the damage is bad. I'll have to wait until the power is back for full details, but I can rest easier now.

I got my boyfriend a model kit. He called it cheap and said it probably wasn’t even worth his time to assemble and then told me later on not to let it discourage me from buying things.

I caught some sort of stomach bug at 5:00 this morning, threw up eight times since and couldn’t go to my dad’s for Christmas (split parents) or my grandparents’ house for dinner. I’ve been more excited for Christmas this year than any other and now I have to spend it in bed. Woohoo.

My sister couldn’t come home. She moved to another country and couldn’t make it back for Christmas. I didn’t think I would mind that much. I’m so lonely without her though. We had so many Christmas traditions and I didn’t have anyone to laugh with me about everything during dinner. I’m thankful that she’s still alive and physically here on earth, but it was just more lonely that I expected to not have her around. It wasn’t a bad Christmas, it just didn’t really feel like Christmas.

My sister getting extremely hammered and telling us she wants to do substances in a “controlled environment” to try and help our uncle, who abandoned his child due to his havut, come back to reality. She isn’t going to “become hooked on it” she just “wants to know what it’s like” so she can "try to help him."

It’s been an emotional couple hours trying to get the fact that this WOULDN’T WORK through her thick skull.

Found out my family actually had a Christmas party. A few days ago I got a card and directions to a charity dinner, I figured that was their way of telling they weren't doing anything this year. Apparently it was actually their way of telling me I wasn't invited.

​I am a 23-year-old woman, my family disapproves of me because they don't get along with my mum. The family also does not approve that I took a few years off before going into post-secondary and recently broke up with my partner.

A few months ago I decided to cut off my toxic addict mother. Of course, being the holidays, my grandmother and a few cousins decided I needed to get into the Christmas spirit and forgive my mother because "its Christmas!" And my sisters miss me.

I don't know what my sisters have to do with me cutting off my mom, my sisters are adults. We live 1,500 miles away from each other, of course they miss me. I'm not forgiving someone who isn't sorry. I'm not allowing toxic people back into my life just because it's the holidays.

For the first time in my life, nothing ruined Christmas. I didn't spend a second with the family that rejected me when I came out. I didn't sit while my grandparents gaslit everyone. I didn't listen to people screaming at the other with awkward tension as one spouse fought with the other over something like glue.

They rejected me last year after I came out and I did Christmas alone in my own apartment.

This year I spent it with my wonderful partner's family. Loving and caring people. All accepting of me and let me feel like I had a family. There was a single awkward moment that passed in a minute's time. That was it. No tears. No throwing things. No sobbing. No "just leave forever or stop complaining".

I got a Christmas for the first time in my life at 30. It was wonderful.

My ex-wife not having the guts to tell me she was doing Christmas dinner with her sugar daddy’s family. I don’t give a shit if she was here but she just ghosted my daughters and me. I even asked her yesterday if she was going to be with us for dinner and she said, ‘of course I will, why wouldn’t I?’ It brought back horrible memories about why I left her behind in the first place.

To be fair, I had a great evening with my daughters but there was a gnawing anger in the back of my mind that I couldn’t let go of.

I want to clarify that the ex and I normally get along very well. We have been separated and divorced for years. In the years since the divorce she has been dependable given that I don’t ask much of her. She sometimes does little things that reaffirm my decision to not be in a marriage with her, but they don’t affect me since I don’t have to live with that behavior anymore.

The reason last night ticked me off more that usual is because disappearing on the family was something she did during the last few years of our marriage and it caused me massive amounts of stress back then. There are few things she can do to trigger bad memories and that is at the top of the list.

My brother picking a fight with my sister over who won WWII. He was wrong and she refused to agree with him. We left when he started yelling.

My sister has a degree in political science and her teaching credential in World History and Geography.

A lot of people are asking what his stance was. He was adamant that Russia had lost and signed a treaty with Germany. Basically that Russia quit the war and the United States had to come finish it and win. I think he was confused by the original non-aggression pact that Russia and Germany had signed. Obviously Germany broke that.

My grandmother is in the hospital and I couldn’t even visit because I’ve been working for the last two days straight.

To be clear, I could take the time off in theory, but I literally can't afford it. I’m a server in a restaurant. The company is not forcing me to to be there, but as my income relies on tips, I have a good amount of my bill paying money to be made on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Not to mention it’s kind of an all hands on deck situation since we’ve served over 700 people the last two days.

Finding out one of my cousins is in really poor health; I hadn't seen him in a few months, but since then, he's gotten a hernia in his groin that's grown to the size of a soccer ball, and though he's only 27 or 28, he's gotten so sick, he looks and sounds like he's 45. This is in the span of a few months. He's refuses to get medical attention for it, and I think he's risking his life by not doing so. But he won't listen.

Every year my mom’s grandma stays at our house for Christmas. Her husband passed almost 30 years ago, and most of her/our family is estranged after fighting pretty nastily over details of his will. She was 85 that year and was super proud of her excellent health -- would always brag that she’d never had to take medication other than a multivitamin in her life.

Like usual, Great Grandma comes to our house, and we make fudge, listen to Christmas music, et cetera. She loves games -- for decades she’s started out each morning with a pastry and a round of Solitaire -- and we were all gathered around the table playing one of her favorite card games. I was sitting to her left, my mom sitting left of me, around the dining room table. We’re playing the game and I look over at her and she’s weirdly frozen, a faint smile on her face.

I was confused and frozen, just staring at her. My mom looked at her and screamed, jumping over me and grabbing her. She’s yelling “Gram! Gram!” and starts sobbing. My brain connects that something awful is happening and I call 911. I was so calm, I don’t know how I did it. My mom was literally screaming next to me (her gram is her only family she still speaks to).

I tell the dispatcher we need an ambulance, my grandma has had a stroke or something, I’m giving them information and as I’m on the phone, I kneel down next to my Gram, who hasn’t moved. She still has this frozen half-smile on her face and her eyes are glazed over. I looked in her eyes, put my hand on her hand, and mouthed “I love you.” I watched her eyes unglaze, like for a second they looked like someone was behind them, and she mouthed it back. “I love you.” And then she went completely unresponsive again.

I kept talking to the dispatcher but it was so surreal. I thought those were her last words to me or to anyone. To make an already long story short, her blood sugar went out of whack and she had an unresponsive episode.

She’s not allowed to eat her morning pastries anymore and she doesn’t have the energy to play Solitaire anymore. It’s really hard to watch, and we think this might have been her last Christmas. But we were really lucky to have gotten her back that day. We all really thought she was dying. And I will never forget how it felt to watch her come out of the episode for a few seconds to tell me she loved me.

Mom has the flu, so the family voted to move the family get together to Saturday, when I work. No compromise could be made. None of my siblings or extended family invited me over for their small get togethers, so I spend the whole day alone. Didn't even get a 'Merry Christmas' text back from any family members.

Worked Christmas Eve, through the craze. Dude in the line behind me suddenly collapsed. A quick bagger caught him and I turned around upon hearing the gasp and moved to help support him, and then I took the guy's legs as gently as I could and we maneuvered him out of the immediate walkway while others called 911. I went back to work but I stayed aware of what was going on behind me. Luckily the guy woke up after a few minutes. An ambulance came and took him away. I don't know what the cause was exactly. Certainly wasn't hungry after that one. Glad he's okay though.

Another coworker lives alone without his family and hadn't gotten a gift in eight years. He's moving away in some months. I got him a small bag I'd filled with inexpensive treats. (Like I can afford much.) He hugged me before going to his car.

And I've spent today alone. The alone part is the usual part of my Christmas.

My dad is a mail carrier and has been having to work 12 hour days ever since cyber Monday. Forced to work overtime, on Sundays, etc. People at the Post Office are literally working 80 hour weeks. They're constantly there sorting packages literally 24 hours a day. I know it's silly to complain about having too much business, but the mail service workers are severely overworked in this season. It's not much fun to celebrate a holiday that makes your work a living nightmare... So yeah. Christmas was ruined.

My grandmother passed away. I’m 1,300 miles away in another state and hadn’t seen her since June. She had been declining in health for the last couple years but I certainly didn’t expect to lose her yesterday. Listening to my grandfather breakdown in tears or my uncle wanting his momma to come home breaks my heart.

This woman was mom to me. She cared for me when my own mom wouldn’t. She was my cheerleader, my support system, my everything and now she’s gone. My own mother couldn’t even be bothered to call me yesterday or answer my call letting her know that Nana was in the hospital, dying. Screw you “mom”.

I'm not one to complain about phones or technology or anything, but my family opens gifts on the night of Christmas Eve so nobody's forced to wake up early on Christmas.

Pretty much all day today everyone was just in their rooms, not really socializing, just playing their new games or trying out their new devices. It's not like I'm better than anyone else, but I dragged my game consoles out in the living room hoping everyone else would be out there screwing around on their phones.

Turns out the whole "tech breeds antisocial people" thing wasn't referring to the time spent with the tech, it's referring to how people do it.

No presents for me, we just took turns opening the stuff my "mom" received. Mom also flaked on the one thing I asked for that cost literally nothing. I also got to be verbally harassed and gaslit by her for "making it about me" when all I did was inquire upon the promise SHE had made. Thought a lot about walking out today. Hope to god this is my last Christmas with her.

My BIL treats my SIL (my wife’s sister) terribly. Makes fun of her in front of all of us and says some pretty demeaning stuff. He basically doesn’t respect her sometimes. It’s heartbreaking. And quite frankly, I think it’s rooted in some serious feelings of ineptitude and insecurity on his part which are rooted in some of his upbringing. It just sucks to be around and hurts my heart. It tears my wife up something fierce too.

Found out my dad proposed to his girlfriend by seeing it on Facebook. No call, no text, didn’t even mention it when he saw me that day. Ruined is a strong word, especially compared to others on here, but just reminds me how much has changed in my family these last ten years.

My partner of 3 years made a huge deal of how excited they were for everyone to open what they got for everyone. Everyone was quite happy about the thoughtfulness they’d put into it. I got from them clothes that blatantly wouldn’t fit, in a style I’ve commented many times I don’t like at all, and they decided dirty laundry would be a great way to pack said items in the box to throw me off what was in there.

I’m thankful I got a gift at all, but man. I feel like they’re upset with me and are being passive aggressive about it. Or just decided I wasn’t worth the same amount of effort as everyone else. Opening that in front of everyone was... yeah. I’m sure this is petty but my feelings are pretty hurt.

My parents.

I moved away with my girlfriend and we both are adjunct professors. My original goal in life was to become a doctor but I got tired of school and needed a break from school so I decided to get a job.

Anyways I saw them a couple days ago and the first thing they gift me is the option to do a summer long MCAT prep course where I stay at a dorm for 3 months straight about 2 hours away from my new home. The try to make it seem like a gift but it's just them showing annoyance that I'm happy with my professor job.

A day later I get a long email from my dad complaining he has been working since he was 18 and would like to retire soon so he can't help me anymore. He wants me to take the test before September 2020 and that he's been working so long so he could help me with my "dreams". He then states that he thinks I'm stagnant because I'm too content with being a professor.

I have only taught a semester so I'm not sure how I've been stagnant and I'm also 24 so I don't believe I'm being stagnant. Overall it hurt cause they also blame my girlfriend that I haven't achieved my dream but in reality I'm so burnt out from two parents telling me constantly to study and do everything or else they'll be disappointed that I wanted a break and so after my Masters I got a job as fast as I could and moved away.

Lastly they keep saying my "dream" but in reality they have taken over this dream and I'm not even sure what my dream is anymore. I really want to go to medical school but the more they get involved it deters me. I finally got comfortable talking about studying for the test like 3 weeks ago with my girlfriend but now I'm scared to talk about it. I know I just rambled but it helped so much to say how hurt I was when I was told all this.

Thanks to anyone who read this.

I dropped off my girlfriend at her parent's house as I was driving to my hometown. Her parents wished me Merry Christmas and everything seemed fie. Six hours later she called me that she had met with her ex and she has feelings for him, and our relationship can't continue. Day before she said she loved me more than anything in life. We've been living together for six months and have been together almost 2 years. Merry Christmas.

Doctor here.

I worked Christmas day which is fine, but what wasn't fine was a patient who came into the ER pretending to have pain and telling us that loads and loads of pain pills are the only thing that work for her. To really play up the 'pain' she screamed at the top of her lungs. For 3 hours straight.

When we finally managed to make it particularly clear that we weren't giving her the pills she wanted, she suddenly didn't have pain anymore and stopped screaming, stood up, and stormed out.

Six hours of sitting around awkwardly in mostly silence because I have nothing in common with my parents. At this point, I only go to see my brother, and if he wasn't there I'd definitely make it a much shorter visit.

There's nothing to talk about with them. They haven't done anything in the last five years bar sit in front of the TV and watch repeats of the same shows that they have seen before. They hold no interesting opinions, have no stories to tell, don't even engage in things like politics, and take no interest in my life either.

A typical conversation will cover three key topics 1) a general asking of how each other is that's more of a friendly greeting than an actual enquiry, 2) them asking about my job that they do not understand and I have given up on trying to explain to them, 3) the weather. That conversation takes all of two minutes, leaving about 5:58 of silence to fill.

I don't hate them, but being with them is so boring, and they make no effort to try. I feel sorry dragging my SO along to it, if I'm bored she must be going spare.

Disabled son can't sleep, hasn't for days. Nobody else is willing to stay up with him. I'm still expected to do huge festive meal after huge festive meal with really help without any sleep.

It's 6am and my day isn't over because he just had explosive diarrhea. So I've bathed him for the fourth time today, and have his clothes soaking in the washer. My cat is senile and cried constantly if she's not being held or fed, she must be fed tiny amounts at a time or she over eats and vomits. My new landlord only gives me the water bill once every three months, guess when it was due -- last week so I wasn't able to get my husband a present. So he's pestering me for hookups to make up for it.

I'm exhausted and just started weeping in the kitchen while trying to get out from under all the freking dishes. I got a coffee cup tossed at my head because someone was pushing my son to participate in passing out presents he didn't understand so he threw a gift at me. I caught it before it hit me in the face so that's something. My sister refuses to speak to me because I'm apparently a "horrible self-centered person".

I think that's it. If I could I'd walk out the door and never come back.

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I don’t want to come off as selfish or ungrateful but I feel like this is the one place where I can actually say this. My wife and I have been together for 6 years and every year I spend Christmas with her family and away from my own.

Every year her family buys everyone nearly $1000 worth of stuff, from new phones, new computers, games, and stuff like that. Not me though. I always get some BS cheap $5 novelty shirt from Walmart or stuff that they claim is for my wife and I when I have zero use for it, like a makeup kit or a high end hair dryer.

Then they, my wife included, get all ticked off at me for being distant or sitting on my phone and scrolling through Reddit. And it’s not like I don’t tell them what I want. Every year they ask what I want and I send them a link to my Amazon wish list, the stuff isn’t even expensive. The most expensive thing on there is like a $20 wallet. Yet they ignore all of it.

Every year it always just makes me feel like I’m not welcome into the family. Sorry to vent I just needed to say this.

My step-father-in-law is a horrible person to be around at the best of times. Antagonistic, narcissistic, egotistical, literally said once "all the problems started when women got the vote".

He kicked off on Monday because after my baby spat carrot down my wife's top, he tried to reach in and remove it, my wife told him no and he shouted in a restaurant "how dare you speak to me like that" then stormed off. Later he screamed at her that he had ruined Christmas and that she was nothing and worth nothing. Then blamed everything on her, denied saying any of those things and talked about driving his car in to a ditch (in front of me, when he knows my dad actually took his own life).

So yeah, that was pretty bad.

At my old job, you had to ask in advance for certain days off (like all places I guess) so I put in for some time off over the holidays so I could go see my family. I gave my manager plenty of advance notice.

Despite all this, my manager tried to schedule me for double shifts on Christmas Eve and Christmas day "so the other girls can be at home with their kids on Christmas." I don't have kids, so she just stuck me with the shifts, even though I had asked for the time off first.

I threw such a huge fit and said "just because all these women decided to have kids doesn't mean my time at the holidays is less important. I might be grown but I'm my mama's kid and SHE wants to see me for Christmas too. I guess in order to be seen as a person around here I need to go get pregnant, is that right?"

Don't get me wrong, I'll work and do my part and work whatever shift around whatever holiday to keep things fair but don't you dare offload all the holiday shifts on your childless employees because you think they don't have families or plans that they care about.