To ask about your worst Christmas day ever

[sparklybluesky]

Mine was 2010 heading towards divorce. Day spent at In Laws where I had to drive as ex couldn't. Not as though much alcohol was served.
MIL served up a tiny meal, gifts to me were freebies from Avon. Weirdo ex was obsessed with his video camera which he set up to film the day. His Sister arrived with her badly behaved children and the whole thing was recorded on this bloody camera set up in the corner. Ex bought me some yankee candles off of ebay! We divorced shortly after.

We were at my parents' for Christmas. The whole family was home, plus my Grandpa who came with his cat. I am badly allergic to cats.
The cat spent all its time sitting on Grandpa's lap and on the furniture.

DH and I were sleeping in my parents' caravan/motor home on the driveway. It was very cold in there. Our dog was with us and slept in there too.

I am somewhat allergic to dogs also, so our dog never went in our bedroom etc. i was fine with those rules. But there was no room in the house so we were in the caravan.

After one night my asthma began acting up. It progressively got worse until I was very distressed and having difficulty breathing at the Christmas dinner table. It was awful.

My Mom, bless her, drove me to emerg (A&E) where I was admitted and had nebulizer treatments etc.

At least Mom and I missed the clean up!

That incident convinced me trying to have a cat was pointless. Our dog now has a non-shedding coat and I think I am desensitized to her after long exposure.

Sending virtual flowers, hugs, chocolates and anything else to all those that have endured shitty Christmases in the past, for whatever the reason.

Peace and love to all.......

@stitchinguru

Sorry - the thread is ‘worst Christmas ever’. So here we go …. I found my eldest son (24) dead on his bedroom floor on Christmas morning 2019. He’d basically gone out on Christmas Eve and never woke up (S.A.D.s). His younger sister (14) was present and my other son (22) attempted CPR.

How absolutely awful. I am so, so sorry.

All of my childhood Christmas days were horrible. My mother drank a lot and my brother has a lot of mental health problems that we're undiagnosed back then, so the day was always just screaming, crying, shouting, smashing, swearing etc. Sometimes someone would try to take their own life.

I would often just sit alone in my room and put some music on to try and drown it all out.

Now I have my own DC and DH and I make a huge deal out of giving them a good day. Nobody is allowed to be a bully and ruin it for anyone. My mum is never allowed round. It's always a nice day

Oh wow, just RTFT and I can see there are some truly awful stories. I'm so sorry to everyone who has shared their experience here. I really hope you all have a good Christmas this year.

@SimpsonsXmasBoogie

Oh wow, just RTFT and I can see there are some truly awful stories. I'm so sorry to everyone who has shared their experience here. I really hope you all have a good Christmas this year.

Some very sad stories. I hope it's comforting to people to let it out. As a society there's a real pressure to think that Christmas is amazing, when it's truly shit for a lot of people. for you all

My dad died on Christmas Eve at home suddenly when I was 18 year old. It has taken me years to start enjoying Christmas again. It was very traumatic. Instead of having nice Christmas day we had house full of people (family) who were helping us to recover from shock and to organise a funeral. Some of them kept forgeting why they were there and they were laughing loudly and drinking... back then I just couldn't get my head around why they would laugh in such situation. Worst day of my life. I wanted to die because the pain was too much.

Some of these are truly awful & sad. I hope you have all had wonderful Christmas memories since these times.
My worst Christmas was when I was pregnant, I was uncomfortable, hormonal and had bad HG and was admitted into hospital early AM on boxing day. I felt so sorry for myself. I wish you all a merry Christmas this year and I hope you all have a wonderful time surrounded with love.

@FrankiesCheeseTruckle

Late 90s I had a quinsy over Christmas. That was pretty rough.

Ouch. I’d honestly prefer to go through childbirth again rather than another quinsy!

@ABCeasyasdohrayme I'm so sorry.

It's absolutely wonderful that you've survived this and make such lovely Christmases for your kids. You are inspirational.

Happy, happy Christmas

Last Christmas wasn't the best I'll admit. Just me DH and DC, I had contracted a virus which attacked my nerves and hadn't been able to stand or walk for about a week. Mid covid none of the GPS would come out to see me and I was too scared to go to A&E.

I spent the day feeling guilty because DH had to make the dinner, feeling useless because I couldn't help and breaking down in tears every time he had to come help me off the sofa and to the loo. I didn't eat a thing as I was so upset and stressed.

Hoping this year will be better as I'm a little more mobile now although still can't stand for long enough to cook the dinner!

@ABCeasyasdohrayme

Basically all my childhood Christmases.

My brothers were spoiled with new toys, bikes etc, and I would literally get their old toys for Xmas. Never learned to ride a bike because I've never had one. My mother absolutely hated me for being a girl.

She got married to a known peadophile as well and used to allow him to 'have an affair' with me on Christmas nights as a child too, then blamed me for it. She referred to me as 'his present'.

She is pure evil.

Christmases with my kids now are amazing, I go as overboard as finances allow and I've really turned the festive season around now, and I love it. My kids happiness means everything to me.

Jeez that is harrowing!! I'm so sorry you went through that.

But serious respect for you to be able to turn it around the way you have. You sound like an amazing mother ❤️❤️

3 of the last 5 Christmas' - all on Christmas Eve: 2016 - initial diagnosis of DW's cancer, 2019 - cancer had returned and last year - cancer diagnosed as terminal. This is our first Christmas without her and our two DDs currently have covid, but thankfully will be 'free' for Christmas.

I think the hardest thing for us was having to deal with the shock of each of those phone calls and park them to help create a lovely Christmas for the children and family. Despite the situation last Christmas (with diagnosis and covid restrictions), we did have nice time, just the 4 of us.

Some of these stories are heartbreaking 💔.
Mine was Christmas 2004. My Mum had some hospital visits in the run up to Christmas and had an oncology appointment Christmas Eve to be told her brain tumour was inoperable and she had 3-6 months to live. She was 59. Mum and Dad were coming to our Christmas day (our daughter was 1 yrs old). All I could think about was how she wouldn't be here the next year and I was silently crying making the dinner trying to hold it together to make it a nice last Christmas 😢. She died 9 months later so lasted longer than her prognosis. Then my dad died suddenly on my birthday in 2017.

for everyone with unhappy Christmas memories.

I've had some bad ones. Sitting in a pub with my mum aged about 11 watching her take her jewellery off, (because I knew that meant when we got home she was getting a beating from my stepdad), taking earrings out meant they didn't get ripped out so damage limitation.

The following few Christmases at my dad's instead, feeling totally unloved watching my sisters unwrap piles of gifts from him and their mum while I got a cheap box of chocolates and a feeling of "we dont want you here, you arent part of our perfect family but we'll tolerate you as it would look bad if we didn't".

But possibly the worst was a few years ago. For the first time in a few years Mum had invited us (me and dc) for Christmas dinner. By this point as an adult my stepdad had mellowed, hadn't hit her for a long time and we generally tolerated each other for her sake. I was looking forward to it, i'd just come out of a horrible relationship (Mum hated him, wouldn't have him in her house). I went round with the dc. Mum was fussing in the kitchen and I shouted through was there anything I could do to help? My stepdad muttered "yes, FUCK OFF". I didn't say a word, made some excuse about nipping back home as i'd forgotten something. Once I got there I decided I was too angry and couldn't trust myself not to say anything so when she called half an hour later I lied and said i'd had one of my IBS attacks and couldn't manage dinner but to carry on and have a nice time with my dc (they were late teens so it wasn't like i'd just dumped them for her to babysit). Unfortunately, one of them told her the real reason i'd gone and she phoned back crying and hysterical. I calmly and nicely just said to carry on without me, I wasn't going to spoil anyone's day by being angry but I couldn't sit there and pretend. I spent that Christmas day by myself lying on the sofa crying. They were all fine after a few drinks so I did the right thing by keeping away. Sadly, I didn't know at the time but i'd never spend Christmas with her again. The next year she was too ill and died shortly afterwards.

I've always made a huge deal out of Christmas with my dc as I had such awful ones as a child and it obviously worked, dd is a celebration monster. Any excuse, easter, halloween, birthdays, she spends HOURS decorating anything in sight and she's an adult now! She loves a good old heap of balloons. Ds is a typical bloke, pretends he doesn't care either way and is happy for his sister to do the work I'm very glad their memories are better than mine.

Last year wasn't great- my daughter tested positive on Xmas day - but Christmas was already going to be different last year.

My worst one though was my sons first Christmas. He was about 5mths old (my first born). My partner had to work xmas day and I lived away from my family but near inlaws. My inlaws had their own Xmas day plans. My baby spent the whole day unsettled and crying. I remember trying to settle him by walking the streets alone with him in a pram smelling all the lovely roast dinners from other houses. Was definitely the most sad and lonely Christmas I've had so far. I was only 22 so not long moved out of home either.

3 Christmases agoi had the most awful flu. Hit me Christmas eve, not feeling well but took the kids out to the pub for a meal. By tea tine i was out. Couldn’t even vet out of bed. DH had to prep and cook, i was in bed till 1pm and managed to sit at the table with a glass of water . Back to bed with a burning throat. Up at 3am Boxing Day, raging fever, delirious and Dh thinking i was dying. Called OOH and advised me to go to a&e. I was weak, zero voice, fever and doc said it was a “virus”. I wrote down strep throat on some paper and he refused to test me.

I was unwell for 3 weeks. Did wonders to my waistline but took me months to get over it.

Worse Christmas ever

Our Christmas 4 years ago. I was single and staying with my mum on Christmas Eve with my eldest daughter.
I got up in the morning to get a glass of water and all the lights were on downstairs which I thought was strange. I then saw all the drawers were open everywhere and my first thought was my mum had been looking for something in the night!
When I got in the kitchen, I saw the back door was slightly open. At that point I realised we’d been burgled in the night and they’d basically stolen Christmas.
Everything had gone, all the presents, the food and they piled it up in my mum’s car and driven it away.
The worst was having to go up to my mum, wake her and tell her what had happened.
Christmas Day was surreal, we made the best of it but we were waiting for the police to come in the afternoon and had a cobbled together meal.
We never ever leave anything downstairs now!

@ABCeasyasdohrayme

Thank you for your kindness

My horrific childhood has made me a better mum so I can't regret it.

Now my mother sits alone at christmas with sons she did everything for choosing not to be around her unless they need money, and I am in my lovely Christmassy home surrounded by my gorgeous children who adore me just as much as I adore them.

I got the last laugh by learning how to love despite being shown none as a child.

I'm so sorry to everyone on this thread who has suffered may the day be as gentle on you all as it can be.

You truly are remarkable.

What an amazing mother and woman you are. You deserve every single bit of happiness your kids must adore you.

Two spring to mind, 1992 when my DS was nearly 3. His DF was a functioning alcoholic and he stayed up all night Xmas Eve drinking then slept all Xmas day. I had wonderful Christmas memories of when I was a child and I hated he'd spoilt my DSs first Christmas he'd remember (he doesn't) we split that year, never seen him since (over 25 years).

Then last year my mum was dying of cancer. (She died Jan 10) she was able to sit with the family for presents but wasn't really there. We knew it was the last one for her. This year will be hard with an empty chair at the table. Love you mum. Xx

2013 a week before Christmas I started miscarrying my twins. Christmas Eve/Christmas Day I felt like rubbish, migraine headache. Woke up at 2am Boxing Day with contractions and losing huge amounts of blood/clots (inc passing out in bathroom)..... Didn't want to wake anyone so finally made a call and went to hospital at 7am Boxing Day. They had to remove the gestational sac as it was stuck in my cervix .... :-( Spent all day there monitoring my blood loss. I was on a drip due to low BP. I was finally released at 7pm but 2 days later had to have a DnC to remove whatever was left...

Not a good Christmas and the father never knew cause the bastard blocked me as soon as I told him i was pregnant.

From that (and other situations) I've developed a loathing to men, and since that time - any man in my life has proven me right - they're all arseholes.

I was an air stewardess, rostered a flight to India with an 8am check in. I got up at the crack of dawn to drive down to Heathrow from Manchester, by the time we'd got to the hotel it was officially the 26th in India!

Otherwise the year my fiancé ran off with someone else just before our wedding and my mum left my dad. I took my dad out for a Christmas meal (mum went on holiday) but for some reason chose the hotel I should have got married in, and I ended up feeling sad. Surrounded by happy families!

Christmas 2018. We knew it was my Mum's last Christmas because she had secondary tumours in her brain. She just wasn't herself anymore, just wasn't my Mum. She was like a stranger. It was horrible. Plus I was suffering with genuine 'flu and felt dreadful, even my eyes ached. I didn't even have the energy to get dressed which is just unheard of for me. Our DDs were very upset at the change in their Granny and couldn't enjoy their presents at all. I remember DD2 being tearful and trying so hard to put a brave face on it for my Mum's sake.

It still breaks my heart that her last Christmas was so dreadful. It's probably why I've gone so completely overboard at Christmas since.

Just thought of another one. My father was dying . I drove to see him in the week before Xmas through thick snow. Nearly didn’t make it as the roads were so bad. Eight hour drive. Stayed several days , did all I could and drove back exhausted. On Xmas day with my own family, one of my children who was old enough to know better was very put out at the presents I had bought him. I hadn’t had time to shop properly and he had a load of sports gear as presents. I should have bollocked him but I was too sad and tired.

My heart goes out to all of you on this thread. Some really heart rending stories.