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.

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.

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 <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.

Humans. Where is my snow?

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.

Israel

The religious fruitcake portion of my family. I’m so tired of listening how they’re afraid of everything. This year it was the horror of how my state legalized weed, abortion, and some Disney movie had “gay stuff” in it and how thats bad because the movie is meant for kids.

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

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.

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.