30+ Heartbreaking And Hilarious Tales Of Christmas Gone Wrong

When the holidays take an unexpected turn, sometimes all you can do is laugh—or cry!

Sophia

• Published in Interesting
• December 30, 2024

Christmas is often thought of as a time filled with joy, togetherness, and the magic of the season. Families gather, gifts are exchanged, and the world seems a little kinder under the glow of twinkling lights.

But for some, the holiday season is far from perfect. Instead, it can be a painful reminder of loss, loneliness, or struggles. For others, it’s a comedy of errors—a day when everything that can go wrong does, leaving them with tales they’ll never forget.

When someone asked, “What is the worst thing that happened to you on Christmas?” the responses poured in. People shared their most unforgettable holiday disasters, from hilarious mishaps to deeply touching moments of resilience.

Some stories will make you laugh, like the family dinner that went up in flames—literally. Others may tug at your heartstrings, like a person spending their first Christmas alone or struggling to afford even the smallest celebration.

As we dive into these stories, you might find yourself appreciating your own holiday moments a little more. Whether they’re filled with laughter or tears, these Christmas tales remind us that the holidays don’t have to be picture-perfect to leave a lasting impact.

Just take a look at these stories and see what you have to say...

1. I think my worst Christmas was when I was three or four years old.

I went to bed Christmas Eve with my sister, as always beside me. I think our brother and sister slept in the same room. I was comfortable and dreaming about what Santa would bring me. Christmas morning I woke up alone in a strange bed, room, and house without my siblings or mother and with people I did not know at all. I was (honestly still am) the shy twin and sometime during my sleep,

I was robbed of my constant companion (my twin). I was terrified. And to make it worse, Santa didn’t know I wasn’t at home. Neither were my siblings (all of us were in different strangers’ homes). I don’t remember if it was momma or her husband but one of them had a medical emergency which resulted in farming us kids out for the night. And I don’t think any of my siblings were as traumatized by it as I was. It wasn’t all bad.

The mother recognized I was scared and let me call all my siblings and talk to them and she gave me a baby doll with long hair. She used it to teach me how to braid hair. It’s been over fifty years now and it’s still one Christmas that sticks in my memory.

2. This year was one of the worst.

We have a pretty close knit extended family of about 15. After spending a great day cooking for Eve dinner and wrapping presents, the rest of the family starts arriving.

We're a Hindu family, some of us agnostic/atheist but it's cool. One of the cousins brings over his girlfriend. Cool. She's Muslim. Not cool with the older people in the family. The yelling and rage still hasn't stopped.

3. When I was 3 and on Christmas Eve I decided that I would stay up all night with my baby brother(3 months old)

so I laid right next to him in our moms bed. I had told myself that I have to make sure that Santa meets my brother… I woke up to the sounds of my mom wailing. My brother was a case of SIDS. She told me it was my fault. Somthing about giving god her first son for me or some bulls**t.

4. The oven died, and I woke up to my mom screaming at my dad about how my Christmas was ruined.

A little backstory:

I was in my last year of university, I was home for the holidays. The last several years had been brutal, my dad donated our life savings to the church and we lost any money we had. He also racked up thousands of dollars in debt and we were forced to declare bankruptcy.

We also had an oven that had been there since we moved in over 20 years ago.

I come down and my mom is screaming and swearing at my dad. He’s not even saying anything, and she finally storms off. I asked what the hell that was about and he started laughing.

I utterly lose it at this point and actually throw something at him. (a five dollar radio he got me, he was a cheap to anyone who wasn’t himself), and scream at him about how he thinks this is funny that our lives are s**t because of him.

It comes to a head when (The Golden Compass just came out and dad hated it of course because of God being killed), I scream I hope God dies.

My mom drags me out of the room at that point.

It was a helluva morning, That’s for sure.

5. My dad passed on Christmas Eve, and I was snowed in and couldn't get to my family until a couple of days later.

It wasn’t a terrible Christmas, but it’s affected every Christmas since with his memory. Joyful memories about how he loved Christmas and our time together. I miss him immensely at this time of year.

6. I've posted this before, but got some s**t for it, so here goes:

When I was a teenager, my dad made us listen to the entire book of Job one day on Christmas. He has this monotone Bible reading style, and it put us to sleep always as kids, which would infuriate him, so he'd jab us hard with his finger or whatever he'd have in his hand.

Now- keep in mind we had a family business in a mall at that time, so we'd all worked many, many hours in the days leading up to Christmas. We were exhausted from that, depressed after another s***ty haul of Christmas gifts, and sick of listening to him rant.

Oh, and have you ever read the book of Job all the through? F**kin depressing, esp on Christmas. We had to sit and listen to all 40 chapters, drifting off to sleep every half hour and being jabbed awake by a calloused finger to the neck.

Then he had a fit that my mom's roasted chicken was too dry, so he tore it all up before she could bring it to the table, mixed all the dark and white meat together in chunks in the pan drippings, and banged it down on the table, insisting that he'd saved Christmas dinner. My mom spent the rest of Christmas in her bedroom in tears.

7. We got a call on Dec. 23th that my father-in-law was dying.

He’d had a hard year and seemed to be doing better. He had diabetes since before I joined the family and pretty much was doing okay. Then he got an infection in his big toe and it was amputated. Later he had his leg amputated.

He was really over the worst, or so we thought. They had even flown to visit my husband’s sister for Christmas. On the 23rd he’d been doing a crossword puzzle and asked my mother-in-law for help with a word. When she turned to answer him he had stopped breathing. If I remember right they did CPR until paramedics came. When we got the call the doctor had said he would not live much longer. My husband got a flight to go down to see his dad before he died. He didn’t make it in time. My father-in-law died Christmas morning. He flew back to us and we drove to the funeral.

My father-in-law was a special man and we all miss him. This happened over 30 years ago but I still remember how hard it was on all of us. That was tragedy number one. Many years later I was divorce. My brother’s wife had suffered with asthma her whole life. As she got older the damage to her lungs had progressed to the point where she was on oxygen all the time.

A few years ago she kept having to go to the hospital. She was tired of struggling to breath and Christmas week was in the hospital again. She decided she this struggle was over. The doctors were going to turn the oxygen off. She did not want it to happen on Christmas so my brother, her daughters and grandkids would not have her death associated with Christmas.

At a few minutes past midnight she asked for the oxygen to be removed. She was the sweetest lady. We miss her and my father-in-law more than words can say.

8. Parents sat us down, me, my brother, and sister, to tell us that they were getting a divorce BEFORE we got to open presents.

My two younger siblings were so young that they don’t remember it. I was the lucky one to fully comprehend what that meant. So yea, kinda sucked. Not really a fan of Christmas Day.

9. The worst Christmas for me was 9 years ago.

That December my house came down with the Noro virus. We were all either sitting on the toilet or bending over a bucket. After a few days everyone else in the house started to improve it my health continued to decline, I didn't even have the energy to keep my eyes open.

On Christmas Day the ambulance was called and I was in hospital for a few hours. My father, who was an inpatient at the same hospital came down to stay with me and to make plans for a makeup dinner, since obviously Christmas dinner was postponed (thanks to me). That was the last time I spoke to him, he passed away December 28. RIP dad

10. My mom was almost 80 years old and had multiple scoliosis and heart disease and blood clots and struggled with health issues for over 10 years

I took care of her for the past 18 years and we spent every day together, she also had dementia and I knew she was getting older so I made sure to tell her that I loved her 10xs a day and I tucked her into bed every night. when covid hit i was scared to death and she didn't leave the house for over a year and I sanitized everything and was super extra careful, but like the plague it eventually found its way into my house and my whole family got it!

After 2 days My mom stopped getting up to go to the bathroom and she stopped talking, i was terrified, then she stopped eating the next day, i immediately called 911 and sent her to the best hospital where they ran soo many tests, they told me that she was dieing, I said no, you don't know her, she always gets through illnesses and she is a tough cookie, the next day i went up to see her and they told me that she had a blood clots in her brain and had a stroke and now brain damage, her kidneys were failing and she wasn't peeing, her heart was failing and barely pumping blood and her extremities all were dead and dieing and it was traveling up her arms and legs and she was in terrible pain and they couldn't give her pain meds because they slow the heart even more, also her lungs were falling and she was on life support,

i went home devastated and cried all night, I couldn't stand knowing that she was suffering like that and that she was really leaving! I agreed to put her on hospice and wrote her a long letter, i thanked her, told her I was sorry for things, and I told her just how much she meant to me and all that she taught me, 2 days later God came for her and i was right there holding her hand and playing Elvis music just like i always promised her when she told me she was afraid of dying alone, I promised to be right there and this year has been very hard for me, I miss her laugh and how her smile would just light up the room and you couldn't help but smile back and I am not celebrating Christmas this year and I just want my momma back! :(

11. When my son was 6 months old, his dad had a really bad motorcycle accident.

His accident happened on October 1st. He didn't get released from the hospital until October 31st. Before he could be released, we had to have medical equipment set up in our home. He had broken his pelvis in 4 pieces, punctured his bladder, and had a slew of other injuries. He was bedridden unless a physical therapist was there to help him get in a wheelchair and start doing therapy.

I worked from home, and with our son being so little, my ex being bedridden, and me just trying to take care of both of them, I didn't leave the house much. One of my ex's friends came over on Christmas Eve to visit. He said he smelled gas in the house. I called our local utility company to come out and check things out. There was a gas leak. A really bad leak. The guy told us we needed to leave until it could get fixed.

My heart and stomach both just sank. I had no way of moving my ex from his hospital bed, let alone get him in a car. The poor guy looked at me and said he was going to turn the furnace off and to use electric heaters. I opened what windows I could to get some fresh air throughout the house. I blocked off the rest of the house from the room my ex was in, and the 3 of us camped in there until the furnace could be fixed the day after Christmas. I felt more sorry for the guy who came out than I did ourselves.

He really struggled with what he should do, and I'm sure me being 22 at the time with an 8 month old and my ex obviously bedridden I had a thousand yard stare going. I'm pretty sure I laughed a little at it all because it was just so much, and I didn't know what else to do. That was 18 years ago and it is and hopefully will always be one of the worst Christmases of my life.

12. One year, back in the 70's, my Mom did not get much of anything from my Dad.

All he bought her was a lighted slide sorter (for pictures), which would be fine - if she took pictures. After all the presents were opened, she went to her room and cried, while my Dad set up the slide sorter and organized HIS slides.

13. Not to me but to my mum, and not on Christmas but on Boxing Day (December 26th for those in North America).

I think it was 2009 I just remember hearing a loud noise and then the sound of repeated thudding in the middle of the night. My dad came into my bedroom shortly after and woke me up saying “wake up! Mum’s had an accident, she fell down the stairs!”. Mum was lying on the floor at the bottom of the stairs with a bad concussion.

My dad had already phoned for an ambulance and they arrived within about 20 min. She was taken to our local hospital and treated there. Thankfully she was OK and was discharged the next day but it was a worrying few hours for us I can tell you! My mum was only 53 at the time and she says the last thing she remembers before falling was getting up out of bed to be sick, so what had happened was she had drank a bit too much on Christmas Day and was still slightly drunk, which is what caused her to fall.

It's not something we like to forget about in our family and my brother and I always like to tease her about it every year. The worst thing that has happened to me was last year when I tested positive for Covid 8 days before Christmas and had to spend Christmas Eve, Day and Boxing Day isolating in my house with only my cats and my lodger (who was out most of the day celebrating round a friend’s house) for company. I know it could have been much, much worse however!

14. I had a labrador who peed on the Christmas tree a few years ago.

 We tried to stop him, we chased him, then the Christmas tree fell on the puddle of pee.

15. Neighbor's house caught on fire, so we had to evacuate onto the icy cold streets with over a foot of snow in the middle of the night.

Siding on our house melted and there were char marks, had to file insurance claims. Everything inside our house smelled burnt.

16. I was 8 years old. I'm the middle of 5 kids and that year my parents f**ked up and only got me a few things while my siblings got a ton of stuff.

They decided to "make it fair" by having me open my siblings presents and then give the gifts back. Then my parents got mad at me for being sad. Maybe I should just let it go, but that year I was already being bullied at school and at home so I was already miserable. I will never forget that Christmas.

17. Today....today is definitely being s**t. A few weeks ago, my wife told me that she felt like we were losing the passion in our relationship.

Today I saw in our phone bill that she texted some dude she works with over 4000 msgs in the month of november (around the time she started to become distant). Here's the catch...I proposed to her exactly one year ago today....she is my second wife. The first one cheated on me while i was in Iraq.

18. Me, my partner and our daughter all came down with norovirus Christmas Day.

I was first, in the morning in between opening gifts and the extended family arriving for their Christmas dinner, my partner went down about 2 hours later and our daughter later that day. I was sitting having a morning mince pie and Irish cream and suddenly had to run off to projectile vomit.

The extended family arrived and then went home without any dinner and we spent most of the day lying around groaning running back and forth to the loo. My birthday is the day after Christmas, so I had to cancel my birthday party too. It took me 3 years to eat a mince pie again and I now have a fear of illness ruining Christmas Day every year!

19. I was 40, had recently been ejected from my home in an ambush divorce, broke, missing my kids every single waking moment.

I needed money so I was driving a taxi cab, which was paying my child support and barely keeping me from homelessness. I worked a twelve hour shift on Christmas day, and if I had the constitution for [taking my own life] I probably would have just called it a day.

20. My brother died unexpectedly on December 22nd, 2001.

Christmas is always at least half sad because he isn't there. But that first Christmas was the very worst. Plus we had a massive snowstorm around Christmas which isolated family from joining each other and giving each other comfort. We even lost power. It was just plain miserable.

21. I had my leg amputated a week before and had to stay in hospital for a month after

Contrary to movies and TV, the hospital did nothing special for the patients on xmas day

22. The worst I can remember is when I was ten

when I wrote a letter to Santa asking him to help my mom quit smoking (I believe it was around then that D.A.R.E. started). My mom, of course, read the letter, and she took me aside and told me never to bring that up with her again. And that's how I found out there was no Santa.

23. It was day six of my prison sentence.

I was still in administrative segregation before being taken to gen-pop a day or two later, so I spent Christmas that year in a tiny cell with no one to talk to and nothing to do. I cried for a lot of it.

Honestly, I've never really celebrated Christmas since.

24. 2008: I came down with swine flu and had to wear a surgical mask.

My deadbeat dad went to jail. And on Christmas morning I found my beloved pet parakeet dead on the bottom of his cage. My neighbors looked out their back window that day to see a sobbing 17-year-old in a pink bathrobe and SARS mask saying a funeral for a dead bird in the middle of a blizzard.

F**k that year.

25. Received a phone call at about 5pm that my Grandfather died Christmas morning. It was his birthday.

Rest of my family had already gathered in our hometown 8 hours away, including the uncle that lived five minutes away from me. They forgot to call me when the family gathered knowing he was days from dying. They forgot to tell me where/when the funeral was. They forgot how to answer a phone when I tried to find out the details.

I never got to say goodbye.

He was the only family member that didn't forget I existed. He had Alzheimer's, and my mother never forgave me that he knew my name and who I was and forgot hers.

I f**king hate Christmas. It's just another reminder that with him gone I don't exist and I am not worthy of being thought of.

26. Same thing that happened to me every Christmas.

Nothing. You see, in the 1970s, 80s, and onwards, I was dirt poor and being raised in an abusive, dysfunctional household. We couldnt afford a christmas tree, decorations, and gifts. We could hardly afford groceries. Hunger was a constant companion. So just forget about buying holiday decorations and gifts.

As a result, year after year after year throughout my childhood, teen years, and even into my adult years, I spent every christmas day doing nothing but sitting in front of the tv, watching all those christmas themed movies, tv shows, and specials. It was the closest I ever came to celebrating Christmas. At least that entertainment was free of charge (though the toy commercials that aired frequently, especially close to christmas, served only to torture me).

So, while millions of kids and their families were eagerly and happily receiving and opening their christmas gifts, enjoying the beauty of their christmas trees and decorations, treating themselves to christmas cookies, cakes, candy and egg nog, eating a christmas dinner, etc., I spent the entire day just sitting in front of the tv and nothing else.

No christmas tree. No christmas decorations. No christmas gifts. No christmas egg nog. No christmas dinner. Nothing. Not even so much as a single cookie.

Granted, I always enjoyed watching all those Christmas themed shows and movies on the tv on Christmas day, but at the same time I certainly didnt enjoy doing ONLY that. Matter of fact, I HATED doing only that. Every Christmas day would come and go and I'd have nothing to show for it except for the memories of the programs I watched on the tv. It was an annual source of frustration, disappointment, and unhappiness.

In the months and weeks leading up to christmas, I always knew well ahead of time that it was going to be the same thing again this year: no real christmas except for sitting in front of the tv. But at the same time i also used to pray that I was wrong and this year would be different. That I'd finally have my christmas tree, christmas decorations, plenty of beautifully wrapped christmas presents, and a christmas dinner.

Of course, my prayers were never answered. I know that they say God is love, but i was absolutely convinced that God made an exception in my case and hated my guts for whatever reasons. After Christmas vacation was over and us kids returned to school, everyone would be excitedly asking each other what they got for Christmas.

It would pain me to hear them list all the wonderful things, especially new toys, they got. When my classmates asked me that question, my verbal reply was the very same EVERY year.

One single word: "Nothing." 'What'd you get for Christmas? Nothing.' 'What'd you get for Christmas? Nothing.' 'What'd you get for Christmas? Nothing.' 'What'd you get for Christmas? Nothing.' 'What'd you get for Christmas? Nothing.' 'What'd you get for Christmas? Nothing.' 'What'd you get for Christmas? Nothing.'

On the outside I put up a phony front and acted as if having a Christmas-less Christmas vacation was no big deal to me and just rolled off my back. When in truth, on the inside I was crying my eyes out. Upon hearing my one word ("Nothing") reply, they'd give me a shocked, stunned expression and in keeping up the pretense of my phony indifference to this Christmas celebration thing, I'd just shrug my shoulders in response. J

udging by their shocked reactions, I guess it never occured to my classmates that there are some kids in the world who don't get anything for Christmas at all. I believe I was the only kid in my class who never, ever got a single Christmas gift. Damn lousy poverty.

27. My favourite bad Christmas story of all time was when my ex had been on an oil painting course so I'd bought her all the gear for Christmas

Easel, oil paints, fine art brushes, the lot... and that s**t ain't cheap either. I'd bought it over several months and got her the best of everything. Brilliant present... or so I thought.

Cut too, Christmas day and the big present opening, she opens all this stuff, bursts into tears, runs out of our flat gets in the car and drives off nearly crashing said car into the neighbours wall. It took me 8 hours to track her down and find out what the f**k just happened?

Turns out she hadn't been on an oil painting course at all, she'd been f**king some married bloke every Wednesday in a hotel down the road.

Merry f**king Christmas me.

28. It was Christmas 2004. some college students from my university were celebrating Christmas in Phuket in Thailand.

On the 25th they sent me an MMS with a hired Thai Santa Claus on the beach and wished me Happy Xmas. On the 26th the terrible tsunami happened. Shocked I called them by sms, what happened? By chance, they were on a hiking tour in the backland, so nobody was hurt.

29. My birthday is 7 days after Christmas. For Christmas I was given a card.

Taped Inside was 10 quarters. All it said was Grandma. No merry Christmas. No Love grandma. 7 days later. For my 18th birthday I received another card from my grandmother. In fact it was the same card. Obviously part of a box of 20 or so. Inside, 10 more quarters. Total given to me for Christmas and my birthday? $5 in quarters.

Fine. She’s elderly I think. Maybe she can’t afford to get lavish gifts? NOPE! My little sister got a Barbie dream house for Christmas. My 5 year old cousin got a brand new PS2 (this was the Christmas they came out.) nope. I was shafted. Then to add more insult to injury, when my cousin broke that PS2 by pouring a juice box into it and shoving a cookie in the disk reader, she bought him a new one for his birthday in February.

February.

30. Stillbirth in the week between Christmas and new year, nan passing away 2 weeks after- 2001/2002.

Mum passing new years day 2005

Christmas and new year is a s**tty time for me.

But 4 years ago a delightful amazing little boy came to me on new years day.my youngest

31. 2013. My dad had a massive stroke 4 days prior

so it was spent watching him struggle to even speak while my mother was down the hall in ICU fighting sepsis.

32. My entire family woke up in the middle of the night

with either food poisoning or stomach flu and we we all violently ill for the whole day and a few days after as well.

33. The Christmas I was 13 and my mom confirmed what I already knew, that Santa wasn’t real.

Something about her saying the words, and following it up with “I don’t have a lot of money so think of a few budget friendly ideas and don’t tell your siblings.” Even though I knew it was all make believe, her confirmation felt like it sucked all the joy and magic out of that Christmas.

34. Christmas 1965 when I was 13. I was asked to go bring our elderly neighbor over to our house.

There was no answer at the door, I let myself in and he looked dead on the kitchen floor. I went to check him and his normally very friendly dog attacked me. Lost a neighbor, got my face stitched up and my family adopted his dog who never liked me.

35. On Christmas Eve, I had a phone call ‘supposedly from my credit co-op’s fraud dept’ telling me that I had possible fraudulent transactions on my account!

When I went online to check, there were indeed 3 fraudulent transactions from England, (I am in Australia) Naturally, I assumed, because of these fraudulent transactions that I was speaking with the genuine fraud department.

As it turns out, they scammed me out of nearly $AU6,000! even though throughout the telephone conversation, I consistently questioned their identification, and in fact, was on the phone for over 90 minutes because of my reluctance to do what they wished.

The man on the phone continued to assure me that he had proved that he was genuine and that if I didn’t act immediately, the offenders would be able to scam more out of my account! However, in the end, I was duped! and I am so very ashamed to admit that! at the end of the conversation the person, (who had all the correct dialogue and terms) asked me to hold on whilst they completed the safety precautions.

After 2 minutes the phone was disconnected!! I knew immediately that I had been completely stupid, and rang my credit co-op! Thank goodness that I did! the person that I spoke with was very helpful, but to be honest quite unsympathetic, however, she thought that she could stop half of my money from moving out of my account, (at this stage not guaranteed) and immediately referred everything to the correct branch of my bank.

In the meantime, my card was cancelled (to be replaced, but because of Christmas and New Year, this could take at least 2 weeks) and my account was frozen so that neither I, nor anyone else could access my account! Whilst I was speaking with her, I received an email from the ‘ACTUAL’ fraud department of my credit co op, and when I told the operator (with whom I was speaking) who it was from, she told me that ‘yes this was their genuine fraud dept’ contacting me.

When I got off the phone with her (Rachel) I had a voice mail on my phone from the (genuine) fraud dept, asking about the irregular movement on my account. After explaining everything to them, they felt that the ‘second’ movement of money on my account could be stopped, however, again at this stage, this was not guaranteed.

Finally, yesterday, I was contacted by both my credit co op and the fraud dept, and was told that all of my money had indeed been restored to my account! I have submitted a dispute claim for the three fraudulent transactions on my credit card (resolution could take a few weeks) and today, although still feeling very foolish (I am not usually a gullible senior citizen) I can now allow my stomach to settle and to try to regain some of the joy that Christmas brings us!

My advice after experiencing this horrendous, sickening ordeal, is: if you are even a tiny bit suspicious of whom you are talking to in a similar situation, tell the person on the phone, that you would like to speak to someone else (husband, son, son in law etc) and that you would like to ring them back, and immediately ring your bank/credit union!

I am not a stupid person, in fact, I am very switched on! I may have reached what society classes as ‘elderly’ but I am well aware of the scams going around, and the use of technology, and yet, I was still scammed! As I said, I am ashamed to admit to that!

Thankfully, I realised quickly what had happened and the outcome was positive, however, so often this is not the case. These mongrel, heartless individuals are preying on the elderly and they should be hung! the loss of $6,000 would not have left me destitute, as I have a small nest egg tucked away in a different credit union, however, as an aged pensioner, who lives simply on that pension, this would have been devastating to me!

Please, talk to your parents/grandparents about the scams that are being perpetrated and as I said, if they feel even the slightest doubt about what is transpiring, tell them to hang up and ring their bank/credit union. I do not want anyone to experience the traumatic days that I have had over Christmas 2022! Original question: What is the worst thing that happened to you on Christmas?

The holidays are rarely perfect, but these stories remind us that even the worst moments can teach us resilience, humor, and compassion. Whether your Christmas is filled with joy or challenges, it’s the shared human experience that truly matters.

Comment down your thoughts, or share this article to spread a little perspective and holiday spirit!

Sophia