My train was stopped in the middle of my ride home because of a terrorist attack, I may have missed the last ever chance to celebrate with my great-grandmother because my entire extended family got COVID, my hometown is desperately trying to prevent a huge flood and when i found out that i would be sad and lonely on christmas my muslim friends ghosted me :) So its a mix of some circumstances.
Xmas for me was ruined because I found a guy that was robbed and dumped in the middle of nowhere during my drive.
Helping him fucked up my entire days plans and even the little festivities I wanted to take part in but bloody hell who robs someone on Xmas and then leaves them to die? Ofc I had to help.
The intense rain didn't help. I think I'm ill now.
my mother. asked her to stop bringing up my rapist in conversation with me. she said "ya know other people have problems too." Then she went and had holiday lunch at his house. that was before I was set to drive there for christmas, so instead I stayed home and did nothing. Turns out christmas is just a regular day.
My <1 year old nephew nearly choked to death on a nerf dart. He briefly went unresponsive before the ambulance got there and would probably be dead if both his parents didn’t have medical training.
So I guess it’s not ruined in that he’s still alive and probably okay (still waiting to see if he aspirated anything), but it’s not how you want to spend Christmas! Especially the older siblings watching all this happen.
Not ruined, but pretty fucking annoying. In laws came for a few weeks to visit for the holidays. We don’t see them as much as we’d like, and its nice. But MIL wants to include her sister too - the deadbeat aunt-in-law boomer who still can’t get her shit together for over 70 years. Whatever - we tolerate it.
Except she fucking shows up sicker than a dog and is hacking non stop. You know the kind of coughs where you can hear gallons of snot being coughed up - ya that. Wtf - I give it one week and we’ll all be miserable with that exact cold/flu/covid whatever the fuck it is. Fucking loser boomer bitch who thinks of nothing but herself. Sigh.
In order of worst to bad..
My cat of 14 years had to be put down, my parents gifted my sister nearly a half million dollars with the reasoning that she needs it more (with the " dont worry, we will even it out later"), my wifes mom semi disowned her ( not sure exactly what this situation is) and wifes dad is playing favorites with step kids.
My Wife's Father. I don't care for him even if he has changed following a letter she wrote to him saying she'd be out of his life if he didn't. In the past he beat her Mom and put my Wife through constant guilt trips. He honestly has changed a lot since the letter and he does very well with his grand daughter, but I just wanted to be home with my wife and daughter after working 70 hours out of state on a retrofit job. My Wife's mother and step father will be visiting new years weekend. I just want it to be my family, but my Wife needs the help watching our daughter while I'm gone for work, so I just put up with it like any decent human would.
Working in food/retail has completely destroyed all holiday spirit for me entirely.
It doesn't matter the holiday. Holidays just mean my job gets harder with no extra compensation. The customers are more hostile and aggressive and it's just an overall shitty time.
And it happens multiple times a year
Our cat got a full urinary blockage, so we've been at the vet dealing with that. My mom's horse got colicky, and seems like she's got twisted guts, so she's been dealing with that. Dad broke his hip last week, and has developed a foot infection that he can't deal with properly, so he's been at the emergency clinic dealing with that. I got socks though, and I'm super jazzed about that. And donated a bunch of money to the food bank, so at least some people can eat today.
Gaza (with the IDF nearly expanding into Syria) reduced my Christmas spirit to 10⁻⁷ well before today. A second cold in the season (with distinct symptoms different from the first) kept me from the family dinner today.
But my wife was dismissed from a 13-year job as an chief administrator of a medium sized general contractor, having been the boss' personal assistant above her office duties. He retired, and the new exec is cleaning house (and is making some bad management decisions). So ours is going to be an It's a Wonderful Life Christmas until we know what our future looks like, and whether we get the good ending or the bad ending.
Update 2023-12-27 Today my wife was hired. It's a significant pay cut, but it's working for a nonprofit she believes in serving a good cause (which is way better than the cutthroat construction industry). I anticipate she'll be happy there and all that's left to work out is how we're going to pay a few more bills. So, we're headed for the good ending.
Nothing did, I had a good Christmas :)
Disneyland was charging $1850 for five people for one day at Disneyland and one day at California Adventure, genie plus (some kind of fast pass replacement), and then has the gall to make some rides ineligible for the genie plus and instead you have to pay $28 a head for the fast pass. Why can't we just wait in line? Why did the mouse feel the need to monetize every single interaction in the whole park? As great as the design is in Disneyland, definitely left a sour taste in my mouth knowing that a poor family has an objectively worse experience than a rich one, especially on Christmas. Some rides had a 90, 120 minute wait.
Man, I read these comments and I can relate to so many of them. But honestly, this year, nothing. We've recently moved to an area that's more healthy for our family. I have a partner who's not abusive. My kids and myself are getting the mental healthcare that we need. It's snowy outside! We have a Christmas tree and presents! It was not amazing; there was nothing over the top or spectacular. But there was nothing bad. Damn, that feels nice.
My supposed best friends gave me and my husband a bottle of wine for Christmas. I can't drink wine because I have an allergic reaction to something in wine, and they are very aware of this after me having reactions to foods at restaurants we would go to together. So they gave 'us' a gift that I can't actually have.
This comes after my husband and I have spent the last year being there for them through losing their jobs, their car, almost losing their house, and a bunch of other drama. It also comes after we spent all day making a meal free of their allergies, as I always do, and after I spent several days making Christmas cookies that are safe for them.
I don't know if the bottle of wine is cheap or expensive, and it honestly doesn't matter. Last year they got me an ornament for our tree, and it is one of my dearest possessions because it has a small poem about friendship on it. This year's gift stung because of how much of ourselves we gave to them, only for them to clearly pick up something last minute and without any thought.
I don't really have any family or other friends to celebrate with, so the most important people to me besides my husband are them. It hurts to see how little I apparently mean to them in comparison....
My father dying. Haven't had very much contact, but the rest of the family expected some things from me apparently, still don't know what exactly, I just left the hospital silently, like my father left my life when I was four. I'm not really affected by the whole ordeal, but it really really annoyed me over Christmas. That guy couldn't even die without making a fuzz. 🙄
My existence. I'd rather not celebrate Christmas, although preferably any other holiday as well. But I especially hate Christmas. I'd rather just keep going on as usual.
My mom's a hoarder, so first thing is finding some space that will be enough for a Christmas tree in all that trash. That 2 decades old tree that will soon have no more plastic to shed really fits into that atmosphere. Then remove trash from table to put food there.
My parents will then pretend to be a moderately happy family for the next 2-3 days before returning to "normal". (They can't get a divorce "because God forbids it")
There's also the aspect of mandatory gifts. I don't know what you want, you don't know what I want. We could both save money (and generate less waste) by leaving that out. I don't want anything. It's by far worse to deal with unnecessary gifts than simply nothing.
Decorations. Why? It's everywhere. Blinking lights, glitter, chains and whatnot. Just another thing to deal with, another thing to spend money on, more waste produced.
Music. It's like 3 songs on repeat the whole Christmas. Everywhere I go.
TV shows. Suddenly it's all Christmas-themed. All showing unrealistically happy families.There's a bunch of other reasons, but it's hard to list those. I'd just rather not be conscious during these times, just skipping it.
At least I have a dog.I'd just rather keep going to school. I wouldn't have to be home at least. And almost all of my teachers are nice. School lunch is also generally good. Oh, and I can take train/bus rides. Those can be quite refreshing. I can be there for hours. If the school ends sooner, I can extend my commute. So far the best one I can take extends it from just 45 minutes to much nicer 6 hours. It includes 2 city bus rides, 1 intercity bus ride, 1 train ride and some time for a walk in a city further away.
What 'ruined' Christmas this year was having to go home and spend it with my parents, one of whom is bedridden and non responsive from Alzheimers. It's more akin to a wake where everyone is focused on someone who is dead and there's little joy to be had. I've been doing it now for 5 years and there's no sign that it will end soon.
It is incredibly stressful and morose. Christmas isn't really joyful anymore because Mom could die at any time. The worst part of it is that all of us recognize that she's suffering and so are we, but the government won't allow any other outcome.
Still, the family shows up and puts in the work for caring for her for many reasons, the least of which is that she raised us for almost 20 years. She was a wonderful person and she's owed that, bottom line. It is uplifting in a way because we come together and work together for a purpose and while it's hard and sad, we've bonded over it nonetheless.
But.. what kind of Christmas will we have once she's gone?
I won't saying ruined but put a damper on.
The gf worked today (yay overtime) and was off at 7pm. I figure ill put the turkey roll im the slow cooker around 4:30ish then start the potatoes around 6. The turkey roll was already thawed so 2 hours should have been lots. By 8 pm the temperature setting is still only 110F. Finally I touch the side and realize its room temp. The ceramic pot is barely warm to the touch. The slow cooker died.
We transferred the meat to a tray and put in the oven. Done in half an hour. Late dinner but still good.
I don't usually bother with boxing day sales, but maybe tomorrow I will. This time I want one with a delayed start timer.
Christmas was good but things costing more now had me stressing all month. It's harder to budget now than it used to be.
Christmas with my family we had a hard discussion about what kind of end of life care my grandparents need and how to get that setup. Then during Christmas with my wife's family my brother in law who's 40 and now responsible for 3 kids between himself and his ex-wife/girlfriend drank until he passed out on the floor of the garage. His oldest child was clearly disturbed by seeing him that way, but most of my wife's family defended it because "when you're surrounded by family is the best time to drink like that because you know you're safe!"
On the upside, my family was surprisingly well-behaved for once, and never chewed out my kids for being too noisy even when they were visibly struggling as they played with the new musical toys
Had to call the police because some kids were vandalizing a subway station. While that was going on there was a dude on a bench quietly doing what I hope was stroking his pet banana in his pants. Yay society.
My disabled brother said every horrible thing possible to my brother in law and got sent home and basically kicked out for life. I knew better than to go to Ohio. Nothing good happens there. I had a pleasant violence free dinner and did not have to relive my childhood trauma this year. My uncle didn't even drop a n-bomb at dinner this year.
my catboy porn addiction and autism
Well... you asked...
I'm not a fan of Christmas anyway. However-
I have not eaten solid food since August (I live on Ensure and Gatorade) and dry heaved every morning. The latter is in the past because, after months of trying to figure out what is causing this, I had my gallbladder out last Thursday and the heaving has stopped. But I still can't eat and almost any food smell really disgusts me.
I mean the presents were nice, but between the surgery pain, the itching from where they shaved my entire stomach, the lack of eating, the not wanting to smell any Christmas food, and the general lack of energy... it wasn't a good Christmas.
Please no pity party.
I like cooking, so I went all out trying to cook a nice chicken dinner for me and my wife. I made stock the day before, brined a chicken, made basically everything from scratch, etc. In my haste to get everything ready, I cooked the chicken upside down. 🤦♂️
Alongside this, I have IBS, but am relatively lucky in that I can usually see the signs of when my stomach will start acting up. I've been planning a boxing day walk, and I'm so bloated my stomach looks bigger than my (30 weeks pregnant) wife's. It's gonna be a fun day...
I had my holiday time off canceled for the second year in a row, but I can't even do any work because the customer that threw their problems at us while they're on vacation didn't provide enough specifications.
During my standup yesterday we literally determined I don't have any work to do. Thanks boss.
I was writing my resignation in my head all weekend instead of enjoying my holiday.
Aunt (?) And cousin. Apparently Aunt has being drinking since the 23 by the 24 at night she was drunk out of her mind; insulted and scolded my cousin and his girlfriend in front of everyone in the family dinner at grandma's because the girlfriend was wearing a croptop. I frankly though it would've being about the fact that she is 14 and he is 20. ( But apparently not. I personally left when they arrived. I got told about the fight later) Everybody left or kept on arguing after that. Hopefully your holiday's dinners are better .
You can't ruin a Christmas party if you don't have one!
But I will say that my entire neighborhood felt like a war zone because my neighbors felt the need to use fireworks all night that can only be described as bombs. One literally shook my walls and set off car alarms. I can't believe they're not regulated!
Edit: Apparently they are illegal but the law isn't being properly enforced. Shucks.
The same thing that ruined it every year of my life: Capitalism
It's not "ruined" but my 3 week old daughter has been particularly cranky today, she refuses to go to sleep despite multiple feeding sessions, diaper changes, and attempts at burping. I'm already tired because I took most of last night's shifts, so I'm glad we're not leaving the house. It's a bit of a bummer because I usually love everything about Christmas (the music, the lights, the food, the presents) and we are pretty much missing all of that this year. I can't wait to make up for it in future years though!
Broke my wrist a couple days before Christmas. Right at the most painful point today. Just looking at it makes it pulse and hurt. Can't get to a specialist till maybe tomorrow. Arrgh
Mother-in-law ended up getting COVID last week, so her birthday plans on Christmas Eve were cancelled, plus they couldn't come to see the kids today. Our hot water heater seems to have a failed thermocouple, so we have no (instant) hot water at the moment.
Nothing is "ruined," just annoying.
I know I am late here but I have quite the Christmas story. For Christmas I spent the holidays with my Mom. Over the holidays one of my mom's neighbours tasked my mom with looking after her cat while she is in Sweden with her son for christmas. My older brother came down with two of his dogs which are loud and very big pit bulls. On Christmas day my Dad came over and got my mom and my sister a puppy (the dog my dad owned got pregnant and had puppies) so there was lots of loud animals around the house. For safety precautions the cat was temporarily moved back into my neighbours house over Christmas with me and my mom checking on him periodically over the next two days until my brother and his two dogs left.
My first bout with Covid. Thanks company holiday party!
/c/technology.
Never tell anyone there what you want or use. You’ll get very little aside of absolutist ideology and abuse.
Sister and Nephews had the flu (still do, it's really bad) so I ended up just staying home and having a video call with them. Sister took a COVID test strip and it's negative, so seems like it's just the flu but it still sucks for her.
So I'd say the flu ruined Christmas this year. At least I didn't get sick 🤞
My brother forwarded a passive aggressive text from a parent that we siblings have all distanced ourselves from. Didn't totally ruin things, but sure punched a hole in the happiness.
Edit, this was sent to the group chat so all of us siblings saw it.
Nasty virus with secondary strep infection
Being old and depressed
Snow storm. The stage was set for a good Christmas because my asshole brother wasn't going to be there, but the weather ruined it.
Mom went into the hospital days two days we were supposed to come up. Spent much of the holidays around the smell of hospitals.
- at least two wars going on right now
- darkness
- I hate Christmas, so... Christmas.
That bald guy who started a online bookstore. But not to bad overall, WFH.
Lost my grandmother a few days prior, got bumped out of my shitty job to a lower paying even shittier job, and have to pass on a good job opportunity bc it would mean a big move and my partner refuses to move with me. And shes going traveling for 1.5 months on vacation right away without me. We have a house together and have been together for almost 14 yrs.
My old job. They canned me for not liking my personality and made up non measurable matrices to do so. I could sue, but I really don't care. I'll let their business model fail since it's just high school with pay. I was going to leave anyways because of a lack of a raise and my boss was the biggest gym bro with a drinking problem. But I could have at least hung out and kept getting paid. I had a down payment saved for a house and it's dwindling to find a job with the right fit. Because this world is going crazy in many ways.
My brother in law has appendicitis, my 'rents have head colds, and I am still suffering from a 6 day sinus infection and COVID head fog from Thanksgiving but otherwise we're peachy
The fact that we aren't allowed to celebrate it in my country. It's seen as unimportant. In fact, we don't ever have Christmas breaks. I saw school buses packed with students heading to class today (and yesterday too), some are even taking exams. Radio stations play absolutely no Christmas music. Nothing in the country is decorated for Christmas. Life goes on as usual as if Christmas doesn't exist.
This video by Gari Sullivan perfectly explains how life is for us. Yes, it's 2 years old already, but I doubt that it's that irrelevant.
Work.
I had to work on Thanksgiving and Xmas, multiple states away from everyone I care about, out in the middle of nowhere. Again.
my local electricity company just let half of our city without energy from 15h Christmas eve to 08 on Christmas morning. Here in Brazil the tradition is to eat at midnight and then exchange gifts. This year it was not possible for me, my family and my friends.
Chinese restaurant didn't send rice.
i looked at my cc bill
Euh, israel ?
Mother-in-law's Adderall addiction and years-neglected mental health issues
Might shake things up enough for some meaningful change to finally happen tho, so 🤷♂️
I paid for my entire family to go to see the Grand Canyon for Christmas. 11 of us in total, rented a big house and a van and we were going to drive all together for fifteen hours. Fly down early to spend time with my mom and she gave me Covid. She has been sick for a couple weeks and didn’t take a test.
She is a nurse.
I had a pretty good holiday, although, I found out that my little friend group at school are really conservative Christians and apparently they still support Trump.
LRTI surgery.
My oldest sister will probably be getting to that here in the next hour or so
My kids are working on it. We bought a vr headset... One headset. They have to take turns. We aren't rich and can't afford one for each of them. They're fighting each other and us over the turns. It's clearly established whose turn it is and how long turns are. They are still bitching about it. It's about to get returned.
so far so good
Covid
Same thing that ruins Christmas every year.
drunks, drug addicts, and uninvited guests with massive entitlement issues.
Have been working so I could take vacation time for end of year. Finally was here on the 19th. The next evening we took the kids to see Santa for pictures and to let them tell him what they wanted for Christmas.
Old guy sounded off. Weak voice and raspy. Ok well he’s old and a bit large, whatever. Only thing we had planned for the week going out was that. There and home which was good.
Next evening wife says she feels off and starts coughing a bit. Wake up to all of us having fevers. By the 22nd she started losing taste so we test and yup ol Saint Nick gave us an early COVID present to the whole family. I got it last so I’m still unable to taste.
Not sure I had get the Rona from a boomer store Santa on my 2023 Bingo card but there ya go.
Well..
Flu ravaged my house this Christmas.
Bad case of novovirus and the cooker broke down Christmas Eve.
I wouldn't say that anything ruined Christmas for me this year but there was some unfortunate circumstances with some of my gifts.
For example, I asked for an original Xbox controller with a USB adapter. I got them and they work perfectly fine in Linux but they don't work at all in Windows, which potentially limits how much usage I can get out of them. Apparently, Windows 10 blocks the drivers required to use the adapter, which if I had known I probably would've just asked for a generic USB Xbox controller instead (if they exist).
My crippling depression and anxiety, same as every year. I drove hours to my father's, only to turn round 10 minutes away.
Being sick AF. People came into work sick because of our asinine sick policy, and now they're better while I've been bed ridden for 3 days.
My MIL.
The amount of people in the comments who caught covid almost made me think that i went back three years in the past
