Page 5 | Tales of family Christmas from hell?

Divebar · 14/12/2020 00:03

@Bluntasduck

As a teenager I was expected to "entertain" my father over the Christmas period to pay him back for how hard he worked all year to pay for it

This doesn’t help you but that made my blood run cold. I’m really sorry

80sColourfulChristmas · 14/12/2020 00:06

@CandyLeBonBon

This one. My brother committed suicide last week

Christmashottubintheshed · 14/12/2020 00:11

Mine is going to sound really materialistic and awful but it was the first Christmas after my parents split up. My mum had a drink problem and things had been pretty bad at home so I lived with my dad who had very quickly found a new partner with four children of her own and bless her, she really tried to make it nice but their family just did things differently to ours and didn’t really make a fuss at Christmas whereas my mum had loved doing gifts and special food etc. I was about 12 so at the age where you still get excited about presents and I remember opening a cd and a horrendous orange woolly jumper from Peacocks or somewhere that was obviously from the girlfriend and not my pre-teen thing at all and just feeling really disappointed that my dad hadn’t made any effort to make things nice for me. I pretended to like it but I never wore it. However you will all be pleased to hear that I lived to tell the tale and grew up to realise that in the scheme of things, far worse can happen at Christmas than a garish, uncool orange jumper.

Twunk · 14/12/2020 00:11

I LOVE Christmas but I’ve just remembered quite a few bad ones (a very good friend dying, a Christmas miscarriage spring to mind).

My worst though was when DS2 was 5 months old. He was 6 weeks early and in NICU for a couple of weeks, so it had been a tough start to his life. He had been unwell for a couple of days but on Christmas Eve he took a turn for the worse, so I took him to the out of hours GP (based at the hospital). Half an hour later we were being admitted as he had bronchialitis and was dehydrated and struggling a to breathe. DH stayed home with DS1 who was only 20 months.

I hardly slept as DS2 was so poorly. Every time I fed him I had to weigh him before and after to see if any had gone in. Inevitably it hadn’t and he had to be tube-fed.

So on Christmas morning we were stuck in a hospital in an isolation room. DH and DS2 couldn’t come to the ward as we had recently been to the U.K. and there was a swine flu problem - we now live in the Netherlands and we have no family here (had fewer friends in NL then too). DS2 was having increasing problems with his oxygen sats and they were talking about CPAP.

So I saw my husband and DS1 briefly downstairs in an almost abandoned hospital. All I had to eat all day was a piece of fruit bread, and then a sandwich. Didn’t open a single present.

Didn’t get out until NYE. God that was boring (and stressful).

It wasn’t the last Christmas I spent in hospital with DS2 either!

Twunk · 14/12/2020 00:12

@whistlesandbells

I know this is off track but I still cringe when I think of my mother drunk telling me my father was impotent on Millennium eve.

Yep, it was a great one! Sheesh.

😳

ChaToilLeam · 14/12/2020 00:14

@CandyLeBonBon I’m so sorry. 💐

@Bluntasduck That’s terrible, no words. 😞

80sColourfulChristmas · 14/12/2020 00:14

Mine is definitely the one 14 days after my Dad died. The 10th anniversary was a few days ago. The strange thing was, we were all so numb that for the sake of my nephew (my DC not yet born then), we all tried extra hard to have a nice Christmas, that it probably was the one with the least arguments and most (faux) friendliness towards each other. I feel guilty looking back, but none of us were thinking straight and my nephew was only 10 back then. He came to my parents house for xmas every year so it was important to try and keep some normality for him.

CoffeeBeansGalore · 14/12/2020 00:15

@Bluntasduck There are just no words

hartof · 14/12/2020 00:17

Nana in hospital we knew she was about to die she'd been there 2 weeks. She died Boxing Day and it was the worst Xmas I've ever had.

TheRubyRedshoes · 14/12/2020 00:25

Mumsnet worst was with in the laws and it was not dramatic. I can tell many tales of dramatic, awful Xmasses full of arguing but always so much more to.... What I think depressed me at in laws was, every thing was in place, good setting, no money worries... Everything should have meant it was a good Christmas but it was just miserable talking constantly about how they saved money over 🎄.. Heating off.. No atmosphere and just utterly lifeless, no conversation flow, tensions from Mil...

Lalliella · 14/12/2020 00:29

@CandyLeBonBon and @Bluntasduck to you both 😢

Staffy1 · 14/12/2020 00:29

Mine is not too bad. The chicken we got was off and DH who has a poor sense of smell disagreed. The house smelt of crap while it was cooking. Luckily when my mother arrived she agreed and it was binned. We got some chicken pieces from a M&S petrol station shop. Had a worse Easter where we all got norovirus. The Vicar of Dibley always reminds me of that now as it was on all day that day.

ChocolateFr0gs · 14/12/2020 00:35

Mine pales in comparison to many others and isn’t exactly on Christmas Day itself but here it is. NC as potentially outing. A long ago, it was a cousins wedding at Christmas time so we all went over to see him get married (warm climate). Whole family was there together, all the cousins aunts uncles etc were all there, yet for some reason I was dreading it. Found out DGM has lung cancer a few days prior (only then to find out that she doesn’t ) so it was all rather stressful, I was a teenager at the time and had depression/was self harming so was difficult time for me naturally, especially given it was in a warmer climate.

For this story, we’ll have the guy getting married, his twin D, then some more older siblings. The older siblings were arguing with their partners which escalated with D getting involved. At the time of this happening I was playing with/looking after the younger cousins. Mass fighting happens, DGM gets hurt in the process and is all pretty shit.

The next day everything was tense and shit, I had a falling out with my mother and just wanted to harm myself but I couldn’t as it was too hot to wear long sleeves and didn’t want anyone seeing. DGM had a stroke. Naturally everyone blamed D and the fightI say that like I got on with him and I had a fight with him a week prior so want on the best terms with him.

Christmas day comes and goes as does the wedding. Then there was death threats and it was horrible. On a brighter note we all thought DGM would die but she didn’t and was released on Christmas Day

Notcontent · 14/12/2020 00:36

Mine are not as sad or traumatic as that experienced by others, but I have had quite a few not great ones, so I don’t ever really look forward to Christmas. In recent years have had some nice Christmases.

This year is not gong to be terrible but not great as I can’t be with my family.

sweetkitty · 14/12/2020 00:39

Christmas Eve and my parents had no money for the big shop or any presents really. They were bothered utterly shit with money and Christmas seemed to come as a surprise every year. DF was a plumber and despite being out the house working 9-5pm weekdays then at nights and weekends doing odd jobs there was never any money (he was teetotal and didn’t gamble).

Anyway he was chasing this bloke he had did a job for for some cash all over town, by the time he caught up with him it was 7pm and the only shop open was the local Spar, our Christmas dinner that year was those Birds Eyes Roast Beef Ready Meals. Presents were a bow of Roses.

Yubaba · 14/12/2020 00:40

My dad did last Christmas so that was pretty shit.
I’m dreading this one as it’s the 1st one without him and I can’t see my mum or sister properly because of Covid.

Scarzo · 14/12/2020 00:43

We were camping (it's hot here at Christmas). DD1 got a tick in her ear. Woman from camp next to us insisted she would be able to get it out, pulled it with tweezers and left the head in. Kept trying to pull it out, whilst I'm politely asking her not to. Realise woman is rather drunk and has overestimated her ability. Eventually get her to stop. A trip to a&e now required as concerned about infection.

DD2 vomits all over herself in car, we have no change of clothes.

Rest of the day spent in hospital, DD2 in just nappy and an anorak. Doctors unable to remove head as DD1s ear too swollen from all the digging around with tweezers.

Woman from next door camp ignores me for the rest of the time we are there.

ifIwerenotanandroid · 14/12/2020 00:53

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

1WildPartridgeInAPearTree · 14/12/2020 00:55

@CandyLeBonBon so sorry to hear this. I don't know what to say.

cctvrec · 14/12/2020 00:56

Last year my face swelled up in an allergic reaction. Fuck knows to what.

Woke up on Christmas morning with my front upper gum a bit tingly numb like I'd been to the dentist and by 9am my lip was Lesley Ash style. By noon is was like Will smith in the movie Hitch. (See pic)

I had never had an allergic reaction before and my throat was fine so I just carried on and drank gin through a straw (couldn't use a glass as I dribbled )
And I couldn't do A&E on Christmas Day could I?! The family wouldn't be eating if I did.

It eventually went down fully two days later.

It happened again a few months later and I did go to A&E. I got a massive telling off from the doc. The many days of random throat swelling almost closed ,that my GP on the phone continually put down to "tonsillitis" despite me saying there was no pain, no fever and no white grossness on my tonsils was actually likely an allergic reaction and it's something that gets more severe every time it happens and I should have been at A&E the second it happened.

We still don't know what I'm allergic to but the Christmas photos are hilarious!

Maddison12 · 14/12/2020 01:00

@Bluntasduck I'm so sorry, that's fucking awful. Hope you're ok

MrsToothyBitch · 14/12/2020 01:02

Nowhere near most of these but when I was about 9, the first year I'd been entrusted with keeping my Christmas card for DM to give her on the day. We were staying at my DGPs and I'd hidden it behind a cushion in my room. Was actually quite excited to give it to her.

Of course, 9yo me woke up on xmas day and promptly forgot because PRESENTS. We spent the day at my aunts and when we eventually got back, mum started being off with me as we got ready for bed. I appreciate her feelings were hurt but it culminated in her shouting at me with narrow eyes full of hate, calling me a brat and refusing to listen to my apology that I honestly forgot. That wasn't good enough. I don't think she even wanted or opened her card once I fetched it. Dad had been so pleased to unload a Christmas duty he hadn't even noticed or reminded me...

Probably very minor but it stands out as my onev memory of that xmas now, and was an awful end to the day. Mum always used to go at me as if she was letting another adult have it/as an "equal" and can be domineering with a sharp tongue. I remember the malice and sneer on her face, the hatred in her voice, the fact I'd fucked her off again and feeling so frightened. It seemed a disproportionate reaction and it's stayed with me for years- I felt really guilty.

Bunbunbunny · 14/12/2020 01:02

So sorry for your loss @CandyLeBonBon

Justhavingacry · 14/12/2020 01:12

My grandad died,
I got the call in the morning but went to my bfs aunts house for Christmas lunch, his family were lovely about it but he wasn't. Through a series of txts while in the same room we broke up.

Finished the day sitting on my own, in a taxi, outside a funeral home, balling my eyes out, meter running.

Smileandtheworldsmileswithyou · 14/12/2020 01:19

@HTH1

Following on from the guests from hell thread, please tell me about your worst family Christmas from hell. Hopefully that will make me happier about it just being a v small Christmas this year (all family away or dead) and would love to hear your experiences

Where is the guests from hell thread? Can someone link it please it sounds wonderful!