Shall try to be brief. dp works in a job which means he will almost certainly be working Xmas day. We live hundreds of miles from my family and Dp has very little family up here, all of whom have their own Xmas commitments (other children/step children/ in laws etc) this means that I and dc will likely spend Xmas alone from 6am until 6pm by which point it will nearly dc's bedtime. In addition to this dp may well be working the following day (my birthday) so again same scenario. OR I take dc with me a couple of days beforehand to my parents, where dc and I spends time with grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins. Dp has never really made much of a fuss over Xmas, to him it is generally just another working day and pre dc I used to bugger off to my folks in any case and he'd go spend the evening after work at his folks having some drinks and a chat. I honestly think he might be glad of the peace and quiet if we did that this year. But it feels a bit selfish/just generally 'wrong' to do it at Xmas if you see what I mean....would it be so terrible to leave him here? Dc is 1.5 you if that helps with your thoughts ladies and gentlemen of the jury.