When did you stop going to your parents for Xmas?

[splendidisolation]

How old were you and why did you stop?

for everyone who has lost parents. Or just not had a very nice time with them in the first place.

I am well maudlin tonight for some reason, sorry.

25 and I still go with my kids and DH. His mum goes to BIL every year.

I stopped going to my parents for Christmas when I got married. But we did usually go to them for Thanksgiving (I'm American) or they came to us. Christmas we almost always spent at home. DH had young children and we much preferred not to travel at Christmas.

The first one somewhere other than my parents was when I was 44: we spend it with DS' dad's family. Since then we (DS and I) have spent some years with my family and some with his dad's family - DS' dad and I are not a couple, though we are 'family' and all get on well.
My father died 6 years ago, and last year DS' dad's father died - so last Christmas mother-out-law took me, DS and DS' dad to Switzerland, which was utterly wonderful (my mum spent it with my brother and his wife; she wasn't on her own.)

I am 52 now and have never hosted Christmas - the trick is to have a small home so you simply haven't got the room to do it...

I still do. Me, DH and DD go to my grandparents for Christmas along with DM and my great aunt. I'm 28 and I have spent Christmas with them every year. Me and DM are doing the catering this year at My. grandparents, they have a bigger kitchen.

When I was 36 and DS1 was 2. We arrived at midday on Xmas Eve, they gave him a present every hour, took him to see the Christmas lights in the bonkerz road. He went to sleep at about 10pm and was up at 5am. The overexcitement started again almost immediately and every time I suggested quiet time was told I was miserable and it was Christmas AND his birthday. He was bouncing off the walls at bed time. He eventually went to sleep at 5am on boxing day morning. I was pg but too early to tell.

They have been invited to us every year since but have declined because they like Christmas how they do it. They come a week or two before.

I find Christmas without my (now dead) elderly mum really horrid. Sometimes I go to sleep on Christmas Eve and make a wish, I just wish, just for a moment (just for Christmas), she'd just come back. Just for even five minutes, as she was, just for me to say 'hello mum'.
She flippin loved Christmas, she started buying Quality Street and Mincing Pies in November.

My df died very near Christmas a few years ago, my DM and mil are both widowed so we always spend it all together at my mums as she is disabled so can't really go to anywhere without wheelchair access.

Hollie and chair love to you. It does fucking suck. Last Xmas was my first Xmas without them both and also first one since leaving my ex, so it was just the kids and I. It was so strange. This year hopefully my boyfriend will be joining g the kids and I as he doesn't have his boys this year. From next Xmas it will hopefully be a more family affair as my DSis is due her first baby mid-January.

We have Christmas day at ours with BIL as he's on his own. We visit MIL in the morning as she's in a care home then head home for lunch.

Boxing day we have Christmas again at my parent's house with my uncle, brother and girlfriend.

I'd love to host everyone but we haven't the space to put them all up.

Dunno, we swapped when I was about 40, now they come to us. We still always see them it's just a change in dynamics.

Me and DH have always had Christmas at home ever since we moved in together, so about age 24y. We made a choice to always spend Christmas at home, and still do now some 20 later, now with teenage DD.

We see family on Christmas Eve and Boxing Day, and we do speak to and/or FaceTime parents on Christmas Day too.

When I had my first dc and one set of parents timed how long we spent at the other ones in the morning and wanted at least the same amount on time. We lived within walking distance of them both it was a nightmare.

I hosted my first Christmas the year I was married, ever since then sometimes I host, sometimes they did,, sometimes we went to ILs or they came to us, I have worked at Christmas, spent it abroad and volunteered so I didn't spend every Christmas with my parents.

Now they are in their mid 80s and I am nearly 60 so either my brother or I host - or sometimes we go abroad.

Every year my DM says 'we probably won't be around next Christmas"

I haven't although sometimes they come to me or we go to my sisters house .

Since I married I have had my parents (and now just my mum) every other Christmas Day at my house.

I stopped going 10 years ago aged 32, by this time our dcs were 4,8 and 10 plus we also had dhs two teenagers. It was getting harder and harder to entertain them at my parents, so decided to stop home.
I Didn't want to upset my mum so broke it gently.
Needn't have worried though, mum was mightily relieved as she was finding it a strain to accommodate the 7 of us year on year. But I do see them regularly over Christmas as they only live 10 minutes away.

I was 15. My mother started going abroad for Christmas and left me at home. Haven't had Christmas with a parent since.

I haven't. I will keep going until they can't (or don't) want to do it anymore. We are a very small family, mum and dad, me and DH. I go to there's at 2ish, eat dinner around 6, then often stay over until Boxing Day. Then we go home and spend an hour or so with DH's mum

We try and go to family in some way or another each Christmas. We alternate but some are much nearer so if it's their year we might just go for a bit or boxing day.

I stopped going to my parents when I was 28. But they started to come to mine when I was 29! DH and I live close to both sets of parents so I have never had a Christmas where we have not seen both sets and most siblings. I'm very very lucky.