What's the worst injury/illness you have ever had at Christmas?

[OneUmberJoker]

Only Flu for myself

My friend came round with her DC 2ish days before Christmas and after the kids had been playing for about half an hour, she told me they'd all just got over a bout of 'food poisoning'.

It wasn't food poisoning and it proceeded to wipe out me, DH, our DC plus 3 in-laws over a week. We went down like skittles. FiL was VERY poorly as was DH. Thank god we had three bathrooms/toilets. It was carnage and Christmas was ruined.

The most memorable Christmas for all the wrong reasons 🤮🤮🤮 I still can't believe a friend could do that and it was years ago now. So avoidable.

When my son had cancer. He was in remission by last Christmas but due to complications needed a 5th surgery at the end of November and couldn't get home until just after New Year 2025.

I had a terrible cold a few days before Xmas Day and I lost taste and smell (happens every time now I have a cold).

I’m still recovering and smell and taste is not back! I can’t snack anything nice such as chocolate or chips (why bother) and I am still just congested as I was days ago.

I couldn’t taste a thing from the lovely family Xmas lunch and everyone else was digging in and I just said it was lovely but it could have been cardboard for all I could taste.

Hardcore flu at 17. I remember standing at the top of the stairs crying for my mum!

Doing all the prep ahead food on Xmas Eve and opened an upper cabinet in the kitchen. The door fell off the hinges and hit me side on just above my top lip. Bad enough but I was wearing a metal fixed brace on my teeth at the time which shredded the inside of my lip.

Hepatitis which sent me into liver failure 10 days before Christmas. Survived tk fk thanks to the miracle of modern medicine. 6 months bed rest ensued but all good now.

MS relapse leading to 50% vision, limited mobility and restricted use of my left arm. Even with that lot I managed to catch Covid as well, tested positive on the 23rd, which meant we couldn't go to my brother's for Christmas dinner.
On the plus side, I'd thought that someone might get Covid (just not me) so already had back-up food in the freezer. DH and DS managed to find the last tree in the village on Christmas Eve - we ended up having a lovely relaxed day 😊

When we had just two of our children. Went up my parents for Xmas as DH was working. Woke up Xmas morning and was obvious that my 14m old and 2 and a half year old were not right. Temps started to spike so took them home. Within a few hours of being home I was burning up, shivering violently and had two really unwell children! Wiped us out for days. Bizarrely DH never got it.

Flu. Whole family came down with it and we didn't have any Christmas dinner at all, we were all too ill in bed! That was back in the 1990s.

Pleurisy when my dds were fairly young. Crawled through work until Christmas Eve then collapsed on sofa with my antibiotics and steroids (asthmatic). Felt appalling for a good week. Exh cooked Christmas dinner that year so it must have been bad!

Not really illness, but had a massive night out xmas Eve. Completely wasted.
i woke up in my tiny bedsit to find I’d vomited all over the room, over the clean washing on the horse and all the washing up waiting to be done in the sink.
Couldn’t face cooking until much later in the day.
Had to wash the sick off my meagre cooking items first.
Turkey crown wouldn’t cook through, so ended up hacking off the outsides and eating the bits that seemed less pink.
A very shit Christmas.

Not me, but my Dad. A few years ago, he had Necrotizing Fasciitis (also known as flesh-eating disease), and we almost lost him. The amazing team at Southmead hospital, Bristol, saved his life.

Our Christmas family gathering was much later that year, but it was such a special time.

When I was 11 years old I had chicken pox over Christmas,then the following year I had the flu.

Swine flu in 2009. The kids were 18 months and 3.

DH and I felt so rough we could barely look after them.

Nothing too terrible but I broke my toes really badly on Christmas Eve once and spent the whole of Christmas and New Year unable to wear anything on my feet except slippers and Uggs.

I had at least two Christmases as a teenager barely able to speak due to laryngitis, which I used to get constantly back then.

Chicken pox. I caught it from DD. She was 4, I was 35. She was fine within a few days, I honestly felt like I was going to die.
Another year the whole family had norovirus which wasn't much fun either, but chicken pox was worse and it took me a long time to fully recover.

I got a double ear infection a few days before Christmas a few years ago. The worst day was when we went to the pantomime on the christmas eve and the screaming of over excited children made me want to rip my ears off.

I don't remember being ill or injured at Christmas, but my mum had shingles one year - that was my first experience of being "mum" at Christmas and doing all the cooking etc, my auntie wrapped everything with mum directing for labelling.

DH however is a nightmare. In our 11 Christmases together, he's had pericarditis three times, flu once and then once massively put his back out which meant he could barely walk by the big day. We've had a few clear years now thank goodness!

Flu whilst miscarrying, 13 years ago. This year my older teen DS came down with flu on Christmas Day and has been so, so poorly - it's been awful and we've cancelled everything between Christmas and new year.

Ruptured ectopic pregnancy. Didn't kick off until Boxing Day but we were away so I had emergency surgery a good few hours away from home.

One year I had a cold, another very bad sunburn on my back (summer Christmas here) - that's it, and both were when I was a teen.

I’m recovering from open heart surgery on the 21st. This takes the prize for me.

Two years ago. My husband had just died. I tripped in the lounge and headbutted the stone wall whilst simultaneously putting my hand on the red hot woodburning stove.

I fell while out walking on Christmas Day, I had my hands in my pockets and burst my face open. Burst fat lip, black eye, Cuts & scrapes and suspected fractured eye socket (thankfully that part was ok).
I looked horrific and it hurt like hell. I had to wear special dressings which kept it all from drying out and it was disgusting but it did stop any scarring.

I had to get it x-rayed and while walking to a&e had my hands in my pockets and very nearly fell again😂

It wasn’t Xmas but a couple years ago on New Year’s Eve it was my year to host and had ALL the family over. My DD was upstairs with my wee cousin and I shouted them down to come see the new year in. It was literally 11.58pm and my wee cousin is shouting at the top of the stairs for me so I go up and my DD had projectile vomitted EVERYWHERE. Next thing everyone’s downstairs counting down to midnight and bang on midnight she does it again. She spent the first hour of the new year in the bath and my cousin upset because she wanted a bath too 😂😂 that damn norovirus wiped us out the first 3 weeks of January xx