Your biggest Christmas "Fail"

low-key

14001, 60056, 224
Joined
Apr 8, 2011
When my daughter was a little kid, I put up all the decorations way to early, was so sick of it, and couldn't wait to get house back to normal. When she went to bed on Christmas Eve I took down the tree and all the decorations, and when she got up, I said "look Santa left you all these presents for you and he took down the decorations for dad"
 
I bought a live tree too early one year and it dried up. Went to Home Depot on Christmas Eve and bought one for $1 and when I got it home, the trunk was too big for the stand. I had no tools so I took an electric knife and trimmed it till it fit the stand and then decorated the new tree
 
3 Christmases ago I couldn’t find DD’s major Christmas gift after we just moved. I was hysterical crying so loud. Something I rarely do. Well she heard it all. I ruined her gift surprise that she wanted so bad. Not my best moment. Moving 3 times in 22 months, lack of sleep, and trying to unpack during Christmas did me in. I found it right behind me. That’s how tired I was. I apologized to her, DS, and DH. I felt like I ruined Christmas.
 
I bought a live tree too early one year and it dried up. Went to Home Depot on Christmas Eve and bought one for $1 and when I got it home, the trunk was too big for the stand. I had no tools so I took an electric knife and trimmed it till it fit the stand and then decorated the new tree


LOL
 


I bought a live tree too early one year and it dried up. Went to Home Depot on Christmas Eve and bought one for $1 and when I got it home, the trunk was too big for the stand. I had no tools so I took an electric knife and trimmed it till it fit the stand and then decorated the new tree

My father-in-law welded up a great live tree stand for us, but it’s narrow. EVERY live tree we ever had was way too big for the base. The years before I got a chainsaw saw us getting pretty creative about slimming down the tree LOL
 
Growing up, we made cookie press cookies. OF course my mom made the dough.

When I got my own cookie press, the first time I spent HOURS making dough and pressing out cookies. All different shapes. When I opened the oven, they were all blobs. No trees, no snowmen, just blobs. They tasted good as far as blobs go. My mom said I just needed more flour next time and she was right. But that year, the cookies were a FAIL!
 


A few years ago, yds was living with us. And his daughters were going to be with us Chstistmas Eve. My oldest was working offshore (still is) and wouldn’t be home for Christmas. And Dd was still in high school.

So, I wanted to have a family celebration before DS left about 3 days before Christmas. He and his family got all of their gifts from me and dh, everyone else got one of their smaller gifts to open but had to be “fair” with the dgds so they got a few smaller things.

Christmas Eve morning was Christmas for yds and his girls so I made the big breakfast. And the girls got their main gifts from us.

We then left and went to dh’s moms for Christmas Eve. The next morning was our Christmas with Dd. And of course ds was there so I had more gifts for him to open. And I did another breakfast.

I have never been so sick of Christmas in my life! And I felt like I just wasn’t in to for Dd. She was older but wanted the Christmas morning we had always had.

I spent way too much money making sure everyone had something to open each time. Way too much time cooking and was exhausted!!

By Christmas night, I was in tears feeling like I had failed everyone by trying to do too much. They all assured me it was a great Christmas but saw the need for a change!



Now when ods is working over Christmas, we celebrate when he gets home. Sometimes in mid January. But it’s a fun day that we just enjoy each other’s company. Easier for me and for him too honestly.

And the next year, yds had the girls Christmas Eve at my house and I stepped back and let them do Christmas by themselves. Yds even fixed breakfast! Dh and I just sat and enjoyed watching them open their gifts and played with them and their new toys.

I learned a lot about trying to give everyone that perfect Christmas celebration.
 
When my daughter was a little kid, I put up all the decorations way to early, was so sick of it, and couldn't wait to get house back to normal. When she went to bed on Christmas Eve I took down the tree and all the decorations, and when she got up, I said "look Santa left you all these presents for you and he took down the decorations for dad"
Aww that's cute! You had very busy Christmas Eve - it's hard enough just putting the darn toys together!
 
We went on a weekend shopping trip for our 5th anniversary, and DH found a nice watch that he really liked. He had been looking for awhile, and this was exactly what he wanted. A couple years later, it came up missing. We couldn't find it anywhere. We looked off an on over several months and assumed it must have fallen off while he was out somewhere and he didn't realize it. I couldn't find the same watch anywhere, but I finally found one at a local jewelry store that was similar, and I bought it for him for Christmas. That was all he was getting because it was almost twice the amount we had agreed to spend, but I didn't care.

I don't remember exactly why now (probably a Nerf war or something, I was at work, DH and kids were home), but two days before Christmas, they tipped the couch over on its back, and a bunch of toys/legos/etc fell out, along with his watch. He was really excited to show it to me when I got home, and I burst into tears. It is funny now, but it was awful then. When we went to return it, they would only give us a store credit, which I understood but DH isn't a jewelry person at all. I'm pretty sure that was spent on me later.
 
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None I can think of. Christmas is magical.

We have had some amusing Christmas moments though.

First Christmas after my wife and I got engaged, the FIRST Christmas gift she opened from my mom, her future mother-in-law, she gets a puzzled look on her face, after unwrapping the box and reading what it said on it. My mom was a Surgical RN, and she bought home boxes from the hospital. The label on the box said "Mammary Implant". 38 years later that box is still around, whoever gets it one year, is obligated to give someone in the family a gift in it the next year. My mom passed away 5 years ago, but she still was highly amused until her death that the box she decided to use that year has become a tradition.

And one year my wife's best friends mom decided to give me a gallon jar of green olives. She knew I liked olives and she made a big deal about me having enough olives to last a while. Only problem, molded into the top of the glass jar was the warning "For Display Purposes Only, Not For Human Consumption". It was a decoration......a prop......like you see in family restaurants like Cracker Barrel. Oh, yes, I did eat a few before I noticed the warning!
 
The only thing I can recall wasn't something we did. Someone else gave us a tray of homemade cookies. There were many different kinds, and each one looked better than the other. Well we tried one, and it was terrible. Ok, so something went wrong with that type. Tried another, and it was just as bad. One by one we tried them all and none were edible. The rest got thrown away. We felt bad as obviously a lot of time, effort and money went into making them. We never did figure out what had happened. If they had all been the same type, maybe they forgot the sugar, or used salt by mistake or something. But since every type was inedible, maybe one of the common ingredients they used was bad?
 
When our cat climbed up to the top of the tree and.......well ya know what happens next!

Another time our dog from many years past dragged up a deer leg from the field on Christmas morning and our oldest DS (age 6 )thought the dog had eaten Rudolph.
 
Back when our kids & nieces & nephews were younger, we would spend Christmas Eve at DH's parents' house in the late morning/early afternoon & Christmas Eve at my parents' house in the early evening.

And, several Christmases ago, we were dependent upon DH's Christmas bonus for all our Christmas shopping. Well, that year, for whatever reason, he didn't receive his bonus until about a week before Christmas.

And, I, for whatever insane reason, still thought we had time to order presents online. Or, maybe, what I wanted to buy I could only get online. I can't remember now.

So, w/ his Christmas bonus, I ordered online most of our kids' & their cousins' presents a week before Christmas.

And, then, there was a winter storm, & shipping was delayed.

The items were arriving at our local Fed Ex facility the morning of 12/24, but would not be delivered until 12/26. And there were several other people in town in the same situation.

And I don't even remember now how we found out the packages were at our local Fed Ex facility, but DH & I (along w/ BUNCHES of other people) spent Christmas Eve at Fed Ex... waiting in a VERY long line to hopefully (& it wasn't even guaranteed that we would be able to) pick up our packages in person.

And I still remember the poor, harried Fed Ex workers yelling out customers' names.

We got the items from the 1st truck - went back to DH's parents' house (after missing the family meal) & wrapped the presents we had for the 1st set of nieces & nephews. We then went back to Fed Ex to wait on the next truck to be unloaded. We eventually made it my parents' house (& missed the meal there as well) where we wrapped more presents for that set of nieces & nephews. And then drove to DH's brother's house w/ a present for his one of his that hadn't come on the 1st truck.

It was AWFUL and so embarrassing! And we still refer to it as the Fed Ex Christmas.

And I have NEVER waited that close to Christmas to order anything again.
 
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The one that stands out to me is one I only vaguely remember, mostly I remember the story being told year after year.

There's a photo of me in an album at my grandma's house of the Christmas I was three years old. I was sitting on the arm of the sofa, legs out straight in front of me (basically sitting the whole length of the sofa arm) smiling sweetly and clutching a new stuffed animal from Santa. About two seconds after the photo was snapped I lost my balance and fell over right into the middle of the tree and had to be rescued from the branches :rotfl:
 
I always make the coleslaw for the in-laws side. I couldn't buy a bag of pre-shredded cabbage since the store was out, so I bought a head. Late Christmas Eve DH and I were attempting to shred that head of cabbage with a grater. There was cabbage all over the table. It was kind of fun actually.

The first and only time I cooked a turkey was for Christmas for my side of the family. I put it in upside down and left the bag of (giblets or whatever that is) inside but I guess it turned out okay.
 
About ten yours ago my daughter asked Santa for a portable DVD player. I checked with my ex and told him I was buying it for her so he could get something else for her Santa present. He totally agreed and named a few choices he had.

She spent Christmas Eve with him and when I picked her up she was so, SO excited. Santa had visited her at her dads house and she got a DVD player! I was SO MAD. He’s always been petty like that and it was done specifically to make me look bad. Of course, there was nothing I could do at 10 pm on Christmas Eve so Christmas morning she got a second one. His was cheap and broke in like a month but still. It still makes me mad.
 

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