Page 6 | Xmas version of things you wouldn't admit in real life....

TinselTina · 2025-12-12T11:24:10+00:00

I wish people would stop mentioning my 5 foot 3 height like im an outlier. I cannt believe I married my ex. I needed to be in a mental hospital not marched up the aisle. I dont care if my child is clever or not.

Gribouille · 13/12/2025 06:37

TamarindCottage · 12/12/2025 14:58

@Gribouille us “Turkey” a euphemism? 😂😉😳

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Visions of giblets dance through my head... 🤢

Bikergran · 13/12/2025 06:43

DarkEyedSailor · 12/12/2025 14:27

I don't like the special chocolate trifle that gets made every year. Person who makes it is very proud and I don't want to upset her.

THIS!!!! We are hosting Christmas again, due to having to stay at ours for family health reasons. Usually we take turns. Because of this, BIL and SIL insist on supplying the turkey. Not only does this stress me out immensely as they only turn up Xmas morning (so if there's a traffic problem and they're held up all my timings are thrown out) but they make this vile chestnut stuffing which tastes like wet cardboard. DH thinks it's lovely of them and doesn't see why I hate it so much. Oh, and a hazelnut roulade they also bring, which is also tasteless and means I don't make my chocolate roulade, which is a hundred times better.

RessicaJabbit · 13/12/2025 06:58

thetallfairy · 12/12/2025 22:39

I find it odd how many celebrate Xmas and have no clue about who Jesus even was and why he was born in a stable

Well, I find it odd that people think Christmas is only about Jesus and overlook the history of the event prior to Christians co opting the festival.

They never seem to query why we have Yule Logs for example.

RessicaJabbit · 13/12/2025 07:00

BauhausOfEliott · 12/12/2025 20:29

When people proudly tell me their child still believes in Father Christmas at the age of 11, I nod and say “Aw, how lovely” when what I’m really thinking is “That child is either lying or thick.”

Conversely I think it's terribly sad when people say 'my kid is 7, far too old to believe '

piscofrisco · 13/12/2025 07:02

I’m sick of competitive business from two of my in laws. We have the same amount of children, similar ages, who do similar levels of activities. The difference is that we both have ft jobs and very long commutes, plus this year one of my parents was very ill and needed care, then died-and we moved house. Only one of them has a job, and wfh (hard I’m sure but not necessarily harder than either of us). Good for them that they are in that position-genuinely happy for them-but no actually, they aren’t in fact busier than us-and their ‘business’ isn’t a valid excuse for not returning messages or showing up late all the time. That’s rudeness, not business.
They have been cocking about about our whole family pre Christmas Day which we are doing mainly for PIL’s benefit and the various children who really docwant to see each other, because they are soooo busy they can’t apparently respond or fit it in despite it being planned and agreed upon months ago and it’s now become beyond annoying.

Libre2 · 13/12/2025 07:06

My best friend of 30 years is beginning to annoy me to the point I don’t want to talk to her any more. We speak most days and I just want to say “you seriously do not hear yourself? Can you not hear how you dominate every conversation? Every time I mention my children or my life or my work you are not remotely interested. Why are you so self-centred? I don’t want to talk to you every day, because it’s not actually talking to you is it? It’s just listening to you rattle on. And by the way when the phone went dead the other day it wasn’t a “phone issue” I just got fed up listening to you”.

Sorry that wasn’t festive either but it does feel better to say it.

And to friend above, and SIL and everyone else- no I am not “ready for Christmas” whatever that means. It’s a roast dinner - how far in advance do you need to be ready? No I haven’t bought all our presents. I’m sick of trying to think of stuff for my own teens - don’t ask me wha they would like - ask them!

And I am dreading Christmas morning which used to be my favourite time. We have left our church for a variety of reasons and I massively miss the feeling of belonging to a church family and we have not slotted in anywhere else yet. I can’t not go to church on Christmas Day but I don’t know where to go.

And to another friend now estranged due to an abusive husband “You need to leave that utter twat. I know you have people who are looking out for you but you have to leave him. You are bright, funny and completely able. Your immediate family though, is completely toxic. Your daughter is weird as all get out and your son will undoubtedly grow up thinking it’s ok to speak to women the way your H speaks to you. It isn’t.”

RessicaJabbit · 13/12/2025 07:13

CalmShaker · 12/12/2025 20:03

Yes I should have held the ladder better. No I shouldn't have been on phone with just one foot on bottom rung. Yes it was my suggestion to hang lights around the chimney and no I don't regret getting a non-electric wheel chair, your arms are fine

???

Original poster

TinselTina · 13/12/2025 07:15

Letsskidaddle · 13/12/2025 01:35

I could never admit this in real life…

It’s my first Christmas without my (narcissistic) mother, who died earlier this year. For the first time in YEARS I’m looking forward to the whole day not being centred around her.

Sorry - I know how awful that sounds, especially to people who desperately miss their mum and I really don’t want to offend anyone. I miss mine but she was very hard work.

I hosted for years (through choice) and everything had to be how she wanted, despite me wanting to do more interesting and adventurous cooking and activities. We couldn’t have XYZ because “oh no, I don’t like that, we won’t enjoy it” and “no, you won’t have time to make your own crackers, don’t be silly…” and “we’ll have plain sprouts, I don’t like bacon/chestnuts” and “no, no starter, we don’t need one” It was just relentless and I felt like a skivvy and not a host.

I was flat out trying to make everything perfect for her - certain things HAD to be done, like the house immaculate top to bottom, clean beds on Christmas Eve, oven cleaned ready, all the food homemade, proper ironed napkins, colour coordinated decor - and she’d call in to check these things were being done and done ‘properly’. On the day itself the children had to be dressed ‘appropriately’, food served at a certain time and it was a lot of pressure (and I never got it quite right). It probably doesn’t sound too bad, but her way was the only way, if that makes sense and over the years it eroded my self esteem.

I put up with it because the alternative was her tears and sulking and me being seen as the monster. When this is all you’ve known, and boundaries are non existent, it’s hard to change or challenge the status quo. Our family dynamics I now realise were very messed up.

This year I am relieved to be free of this - I feel terribly guilty and unpleasant feeling this way and I know there are hundreds of people who’d give everything to have their late mum with them for Christmas but I am looking forward to doing it the way I’d like.

She sounded fucking awful. Glad you're free

OP posts:

Exceptionalice · 13/12/2025 07:33

Sunshineandrainbow · 12/12/2025 23:46

I hate getting presents, I really hate having to open presents in front of people.

I have a tiny house and too much stuff already. I have no where to put anything else.

I love getting gifts 😅 but I hate opening them infront of people. I’d rather collect up all my gifts and take them home to open them by myself then say my thank yous later 🤣

Mrssweary · 13/12/2025 07:48

Allseeingallknowing · 12/12/2025 22:50

Why can’t you give it to someone else?

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It’s the kind of items that could cause thrush, irritated skin etc or the item really doesn’t smell nice or I have duplicate of the item as it’s been gifted before , if I donated to charity shops I doubt they would sell them as realistically if I don’t like them then the vast majority won’t really like them either.

Apart from pouring the items down the sink and disposing in the bin I don’t know what else to do with them but then I feel terrible because I’ve been given these items and people have obviously spent hard earned money on them and I should be grateful so they end up being stored. It’s a vicious circle.

Maggiebell · 13/12/2025 07:49

Leftsidefacing · 13/12/2025 01:49

I’m 5’0” on a good day but nobody has mentioned my height since I was at primary school - who are these people that think 5’3” is so noteworthy?

Im 5ft 2ins and never saw it as a problem. I don't feel like a short arse.
I miss my Christmases when all my family got together in my mums lovely flat. Since my mum died we don't all meet up anymore but I wouldn't tell my family cos they would be sad about it.

LongJoanneSilber · 13/12/2025 07:52

I dont like Christmas. It is weeks of searching for gifts, spending money, organising food etc all hassle and pretending to be fun.

I'm secretly looking forward to January. To the pp who books days off work but tells people you're busy working, I like your style!

RessicaJabbit · 13/12/2025 07:58

Mrssweary · 13/12/2025 07:48

It’s the kind of items that could cause thrush, irritated skin etc or the item really doesn’t smell nice or I have duplicate of the item as it’s been gifted before , if I donated to charity shops I doubt they would sell them as realistically if I don’t like them then the vast majority won’t really like them either.

Apart from pouring the items down the sink and disposing in the bin I don’t know what else to do with them but then I feel terrible because I’ve been given these items and people have obviously spent hard earned money on them and I should be grateful so they end up being stored. It’s a vicious circle.

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"doubt they would sell them as realistically if I don’t like them then the vast majority won’t really like them either."

What nonsense. They wouldn't be available to buy in the first place if no-one liked them.

You're making shit excuses for your decision to throw it away, so just own it.

Or put it in the food bank next time you're at the supermarket or whatever.

Crucible · 13/12/2025 08:35

If i get terrible shower gel for christmas that i can't use (eczema), i make a big mop and bucket up with all of it and mop down all my large wheelie bins and recycling boxes with it in the new year. Easy.
The binmen may get eucalyptus scented bins this year...

scalt · 13/12/2025 08:44

@the80sweregreat I remember my dad muttering in the 1990s (long before Instagram etc.) that weddings seemed to be far more about photography than the actual event. And yes, we were in agreement even then about Christmas being overdone. We sometimes think that Scrooge was right.

And something I can't admit in real life: how boring and painfully slow my church choir practice is. Year in year out we do the same stuff, going over it with a fine-tooth comb in excruciating detail, and people make the same mistakes again and again; I always know when the director will suddenly stop, to point out that we should have left daylight after that comma. We do exactly the same warm-ups in the fifteen years I have been there, with the same convoluted explanations of why they are useful, the wording of which we all know by heart, and everyone is far too polite to point any of this out. Some of the ladies in the choir (now in their late 80s) were there since before I was born. People have quietly left the choir when they have had enough, and I might be about to do the same.

MrsB2025 · 13/12/2025 08:53

Mrssweary · 13/12/2025 07:48

It’s the kind of items that could cause thrush, irritated skin etc or the item really doesn’t smell nice or I have duplicate of the item as it’s been gifted before , if I donated to charity shops I doubt they would sell them as realistically if I don’t like them then the vast majority won’t really like them either.

Apart from pouring the items down the sink and disposing in the bin I don’t know what else to do with them but then I feel terrible because I’ve been given these items and people have obviously spent hard earned money on them and I should be grateful so they end up being stored. It’s a vicious circle.

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I get why they want to been seen to be saying that you should donate, and I doubt every one of them take similar noble actions themselves in their day to day lives. It’s interesting how quickly people jump to moral outrage over someone binning unwanted gifts, but rarely stop to question why we’re drowning in useless tat in the first place.

We’re told to “donate instead of throw away” as though that magically erases the problem yet the same people preaching about recycling are often buying cheap, mass-produced shit from chains built on underpaid labour and environmental destruction. It’s a cycle of virtue signalling: condemn waste, but keep fuelling the system that creates it.

If people cared half as much about the corporate exploitation and pollution behind the products as they do about how others dispose of them, there’d be a lot less tat to donate and even less ending up in landfills.

Original poster

TinselTina · 13/12/2025 08:58

My mil has had an op and will be staying with us until after xmas. Shes lovely but we're only a week in and i want to run away.

OP posts:

RampantIvy · 13/12/2025 09:12

Mrssweary · 13/12/2025 07:48

It’s the kind of items that could cause thrush, irritated skin etc or the item really doesn’t smell nice or I have duplicate of the item as it’s been gifted before , if I donated to charity shops I doubt they would sell them as realistically if I don’t like them then the vast majority won’t really like them either.

Apart from pouring the items down the sink and disposing in the bin I don’t know what else to do with them but then I feel terrible because I’ve been given these items and people have obviously spent hard earned money on them and I should be grateful so they end up being stored. It’s a vicious circle.

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They don't cause thrush for everyone.
Just put them in the food bank donation trolley next time you go shopping or the hygiene bank in Boots.

I hadn't heard of the hygiene bank at Boots @TheBeaTgoeson1 . I'll remember that for future. Thank you.

Putting this kind of thing into landfill is such a horrible thing to do.

MrsB2025 · 13/12/2025 09:18

Some of you seem to think it’s noble to offload your unwanted junk on those less fortunate as if your “good deed” can be measured in the tat pass down. You get to feel virtuous, pat yourself on the back, and imagine that someone struggling to afford food is thrilled to receive a skin-irritating glitter bath bomb when they don’t even have a bath. Or a half-used body spray when they can’t afford deodorant. Honestly, check yourselves.

WinterFrogs · 13/12/2025 09:23

My thing that I might say out loud one day is the frustration about having to take responsibility for disposing of stuff that I don't want and didn't ask for, or even specifically said that I don't want.
That could be advertising blurb that companies insisting on sending all year, unwanted gifts, or the stuff in my mum's shed that nobody wants but there is still an expectation that I will dispose of it responsibly.

Blingismything · 13/12/2025 09:23

Dreading Christmas Day when one relation will drink too much and talk shite all day. No-one is interested. Plus their Christmas gifts are utter tat.

Tattletail · 13/12/2025 09:27

The elf of the shelf is... Annoying, to say the least.

Thank goodness my kids are delighted by him simply moving a few inches around the house each night 😅

PrincessFairyWren · 13/12/2025 09:50

My sister is an alcoholic. This year she has lost her job and her mental health has completely tanked and she is living in squalor. The rest of the family don’t know how bad it is and I don’t feel like seeing her on Christmas Day and pretend everything is normal. I will also probably be tasked with making sure she gets home safely after she gets wasted because Christmas dinner is at our other sister’s house. I can’t be bothered with this 💩.

My DH and I separated this year. He is very cross with me but I reckon he is damned lucky that I put up with him for so long. Everyone is waiting for me to take him back and I don’t know what to say to them.

RampantIvy · 13/12/2025 10:12

MrsB2025 · 13/12/2025 09:18

Some of you seem to think it’s noble to offload your unwanted junk on those less fortunate as if your “good deed” can be measured in the tat pass down. You get to feel virtuous, pat yourself on the back, and imagine that someone struggling to afford food is thrilled to receive a skin-irritating glitter bath bomb when they don’t even have a bath. Or a half-used body spray when they can’t afford deodorant. Honestly, check yourselves.

You seem very offended that someone donating an unopened gift of Baylis and Harding bubble bath and body lotion might be of benefit to someone who genuinely beeds it.

Nowhere accepts opened toiletries BTW.

DarkEyedSailor · 13/12/2025 10:28

I've been in a women's refuge and we had donations of bath products etc that were very nice to receive.
I've been homeless and had Christmas presents from a charity that works with women in street prostitution and again it was lovely to have something that made me feel like a normal human. Moisturiser, lipstick, things like that.