Worst Christmas meal ever? Can be because of hideous food, dreadful company, unbearable tension...or all of the above!

[sprigatito]

We had some terrible Christmases when I was a child - divorced parents, nobody got along, my mother was a crap cook and had a violent temper and my stepfather had Victorian tendencies (no talking at the table) so Christmas dinner was generally horrendous on a number of levels. This wasn't improved during the years when my dad was around for Christmas, because we'd get dropped off at his (freezing, uninhabitable) house straight after dinner, where he'd have bought enough meat and cheese to feed an army and expect us to eat it all. Christmases at home tended to end with a blazing row and someone storming out in the middle of dinner/charades/the night.

I love Christmas now (and am NC with my mother) but at around this time of year I do get the slight collywobbles remembering how awful it used to be. I have this horrible but funny image of my mother's face under a gaily coloured paper hat snarling "you've ruined Christmas for everyone, now shut your mouth or I'll knock your block off"

So what's your "worst Christmas dinner ever" story?

I'm so sorry. I cannot even begin to imagine how painful that was for you.

I'm so sorry and it was so recent. I hope things are getting better for you.

Work Christmas lunch. We'd pre-ordered our choices weeks before, and paid. On the day, they served our meals and I was left without any food.
Turns out a colleague hadn't said he was coming, or ordered, or paid, but just tagged along on the day and grabbed my veggie option when the wait staff asked who it was for.
I was left with no food. Our boss told me not to make a fuss, everyone else thought it was funny and the bastard happily ate my food whilst I sat with nothing to eat. The hotel had catered for actual numbers so there wasn't anything else.
He then refused to pay me for it and our boss backed him up.
It was 20 years ago and I'm still angry.

Edited to say I wish I'd read the posts before mine. Sorry, mine is so terribly petty. My condolences to you both.

Any works Xmas do really, they're always so incredibly shit. £50 to sit next to the smelly one from the next office while some terrible Tina Turner impersonator warbles off key, while a 15year old in a belt for a skirt serves you Bernard Matthews turkey and bisto, followed by someone being obnoxiously drunk on the sticky dance floor

It’s not petty! I’d have been livid!

Sorry haven't read the thread. But mine was a couple of years ago. Strained family - just now mum and 2 siblings (who don't really get on). Sibling 1 said they would do Xmas Day at Mum's but the food would be whatever they could buy at supermarkets on Xmas Eve being sold off cheap. It was dreadful - I have a food preference and basically ended up with starters. Sibling 2 was to do the proper family meal when DGC were available - later in the Xmas period. I am Sibling 2 - I asked my mum what she would like to eat - she chose Beef Wellington, so despite me not eating meat I prepped and cooked a Beef Wellington, and prepped all of the roast accompaniments. Sibling 1 complained all day that our Mum was cooking and I was meant to be doing this. Yes it was my Mum's home and she doesn't cope well with giving up control. But I had bought and prepped a full roast dinner for meat eaters and vegetarians, taking into account Sibling 1's dietary preferences. DGC loved it as did my Mum.

I have been offered the same choice this year. I have declined Xmas Day - no thanks! The entitlement of Sibling 1 is so extraordinary - I am not prepared to engage.

Some really tragic stories on here.

I've had a Christmas Day where I had norovirus and ended up in the out of hours doctors as I couldn't stop being sick.

One year my house flooded on Boxing Day.

My youngest DC was in hospital over christmas when she was 18 months old and my sons were 7 and 5. They wrote letters to Santa on Christmas Eve to ask for their sister to be home.

Then there was the year eldest tested positive for covid at teatime on Christmas Eve. We were supposed to be going to my parents for Christmas dinner so had very little food in.

A slice of cake in a a motorway services costa. My usually lovely parents had uninvited me as I'd had a very short lived vomiting thing. A couple of days before Christmas. Really wanted a latte and it was the only place open!

So sorry to those who’ve had such tragedy in their lives.

Ive never had anything terrible. The only one that comes to mind was as a teenager I was very anxious and not good in social situations. I’m much better now but pretty sure I had mental health issues when I think back but won’t go into that. Anyway, I didn’t feel great on X-mas and excused myself and spent sometime in bed resting. I came down for meal to be berated about how I was faking it etc. It was obvious they’d been talking about me with relatives I rarely saw who also gave me a telling off too. I get having a socially awkward teen isn’t fun but I don’t think that’s the best way to deal with the situation.

God some of these are really sad

I did have norovurus one year and just had a few spoonfuls of yogurt and sips of apple juice. Mum kept asking me to sit at the table and trying to encourage mee to eat!

It was fine! The thing that makes me laugh now is my neice coming around with yhe tub of Quality Street and me waving her away! If my friends had seen that they would have laughed!

I also have memories of my Nanna who would always feel an imagined slight and in every photo had a right face on her, then there would be drunken weeping at my Dad (her son), "Ignore me, I am just a silly old woman".

3 I can think of but none are as bad as some of these.

Last year I was ill for most of December, on steroids and antibiotics on and off till, on the 23rd I went back to GP as not any better. Got sent off to A&E in an ambulance, spent 16 hours in a chair in the waiting room struggling to breathe, coughing and feeling lousy; intermittently taken off for some test or other and finally at 7am on Christmas Eve morning told I had influenza A and that they wanted to admit me but had no beds, even overflow areas were full so they were sending me home in a taxi (that cost me £50) to rest and see how I got on. Was the first year my 3 year old twins really understood Christmas and I didn’t even have the energy to wrap their presents up let alone cook dinner. DH hastily threw their stocking fillers in the stockings and put them under the tree (nowhere to hang them) and that was Christmas.

2nd on was the year we moved to where we live now; booked into a local golf resort for Christmas Day meal; starter was soup that looked and smelt like vomit. Couldn’t face the rest of the meal, dining room was full, really hot and entertainers kept screeching out Christmas hits; we were on a table for 2 by the entrance to the kitchens and my chair kept being knocked by people walking out with trays of food for other tables. Couldn’t face the rest of the meal and couldn’t leave as had a 4 hour wait for our taxi home and it was too far to walk but it was also really foggy so wouldn’t have been a great walk home if we could manage it!!

3rd one was 12 years ago and I’d had major surgery a week before Christmas and discharged on my 40th birthday. Couldn’t eat solids just allowed clear fluids and stuff the consistency of yoghurt, barely managed more than an egg cup before I was full and was totally worn out all the time. Staying at DSis for Christmas and they were wonderful hosts and made sure they had stuff in for me but I felt so wretched I spent a lot of time in bed or sleeping. Felt it was a wasted Christmas and that I wasn’t a good guest!

Christmas Day 2016, my sister in a hospice about to go anytime. We sat there waiting for the phone to ring with the awful news. She hung on until 30th dec. Such an awful day.

Christmas Day 2018 my mum's first in the dementia care home. She had always been Christmas for us and to see her being led away by the hand to have lunch with the other residents broke my heart.

Nowhere near as bad as some of these, but Christmas 2013 was pretty awful. We were staying with my parents in the middle of the countryside and they had a power cut which lasted from 23rd December to Boxing Day. Their house is large, old and draughty. We obviously couldn’t cook Christmas dinner ourselves so my parents’ neighbour who had two ovens kindly provided a turkey and veg for us. Unfortunately it was cold by the time she drove it round. We then sat around in the cold and dark playing monopoly. My brother was so depressed he went to bed for the whole afternoon. Never again!

@Amandasummers

I'm sorry you and your children are having such a hard time. Maybe the new year will be the one where you can quietly, discreetly start putting some actions into place so that you can escape the situation you are in.

When you are ready, do make your own new thread in the "Relationships" board so that the knowledgeable, kind people on here can advise you on the steps you can put in place to get somewhere safe. 🌹

@ginasevern

That sounds like the sort of thing you'd see on a Carry On film or a "special edition" of a Fawlty Towers episode. I hope your following Christmases are an improvement on that one. 🌹

@Baldieheid

I'm assume you didn't go to any further work's Christmas dinners after that? Your colleague was bad enough but your boss sounds utter shit! 🌹

I found out my exh was having an affair in the September. He then left to work away until December 23rd-with the intention that myself and DD's (then 3 and 4) would join him in the foreign country after Christmas (and we would recover our marriage-the work move was planned before the affair was uncovered and for down reason I agreed to go ahead with it). I was working full time at that point in a highly stressful job 1.5 hours commute away. I had two under 4 and no family to help. I also had to pack up our entire life, half of the house into storage, half for a shipping container, sort out renting our house out, and sort out Christmas. He waltzed back in on the 23rd December literally as the removal truck was leaving. We loaded up the car and set off for my mums, 300 miles away where we having Christmas before moving. It snowed and the journey took 5 hours longer than it should. I was suffering with extreme stress at that point and actual exhaustion. I came down with a virus that knocked me out for the entire festive period. Exh was annoyed as we had tickets for a big gig on Christmas Eve near my Mums and I couldn't go. At that point I could barely stand the sight of him and was faced with the prospect of a year in a far away foreign Country knowing no one but him. It was fucking awful and my Mum was really arsey as I 'ruined' Christmas by not being cheerful.

I'm so sorry your childhood sounds horrendous

I don't think I have a single good Christmas memory. I hate this time of year.
About 10-15 years ago, I was staying with my widowed mother and despite having all the time in the world and plenty money, she hadn't bought me a present.
At some point on Christmas day evening she disappeared upstairs and returned with an unworn silk scarf, unwrapped, and handed it to me but it was obvious she didn't really want to part with it as she'd bought it for herself.
Our communication was dreadful and we never knew how to speak to each other.

My mother does this! She gives me cast offs of hers, never buys me anything I actually want.

I hated Christmas as a child. We used to go to my mother's side due to extreme pressure from them. It was a farce. Her upbringing was exceptionally abusive and her oldest sister (11 years older) was a manipulative bitch who among other things once beat me black and blue aged about 9 for not saying 'hello' in a welcoming enough way for her liking. (Any excuse tbh). Mother just put up with it because she preferred to keep her sister happy rather than stand up for me. nasty aunt's husband would feel me up etc. There would always be a huge fight. I have a really strong memory of being aged around 12 and there was screaming and shouting and throwing of crockery at people in the background while all the cousins (we were used to it) just sat quietly and watched oldest cousin use a paper clip to pop blackheads on the back of second eldest cousin.