Everyone gets picky around Christmas time, bunch of feelings of entitlement and “how can I be better than you buy giving you a better gift” plus a lot of responsibilities to make the Christmas holiday plans go well, get passed to different members of thw family, so expectations are at an all time high and anyone who challenges/goes against what’s expected usually causes problems.
My family pretty lowkey, wife and I cooked and hosted at our place Christmas day, my family wierd but they arent picky or anything
Unfortunately, my wife and I had to also cook and prep her parents Christmas Eve dinner for 15 guests, due to her mom having dementia and being i capable of cooking complex meals, and her siblings/dad basically saying they’re too busy to do it...
Her mums condition is truly the hardest part though, its just heartbreaking as she’s such a sweet, kind-hearted person, who used to fucking love mingling with the family and friends, like legit this is a “Christmas family” like, one of the reasons I got on with her family was because her family was sooooo pro-Christmas tradition! Sadly now her mum is basically left sitting on the couch incapable of holding any coversation, playing any games, or engaging in group discussion as its just too hard to keep up... so this christmas eve was pretty hard on my wife as the night ended with her mum breaking down in tears over “not getting it and having a bad brain”
Its a great holiday, but man, years and years of building terrific traditions comes at a cost in your later years when the responsibility shifts to you and the expectations suddenly change
