Excuses,ideas.

[Tarot]

If you are invited to somewhere you dont want to be Christmas,or dont want certain relatives at your Christmas dinner,how do you get out of it. Sometimes peoples holidays are a dread,because they dont want to offend people, or their spouse.It could cause resentment in relations. Any ideas?

[cate]

Say that Christmas is cancelled for this year in your family. Or go and do some voluntary work and then you can truthfully say you are busy.

[KalamityKel]

Or just tell the truth. whats the point in being false and pretending to be enjoying someones company when ur not? id b more offended if i found out later i wasnt welcome somewhere.

[ClareC]

We had both sides to us last year, 6 people Christmas day and 10 on boxing day. I was 8 1/2 months pregnant at the time. It was really hard work, not at all relaxing and very expensive. Didn't help that we ended up sleeping on an airbed on boxing day night and getting little sleep - surprisingly comfortable but really cold!! (Top tip, put a quilt and sheet to lay on rather than just sheet!

I was relieved when we had the house to ourselves again a few days after Christmas! I ended up with a newborn baby and a huge pile of bedding / tablecloths etc to iron just after Christmas, bad combination! Think it got done about September ;-)

This year we decided we would like to have christmas home alone just the three of us, thought that would be really controversial but my parents didn't invite us (although said we were welome, they didn't want to jump in front of my partner's parents as for them it's their first grandchild's first christmas), and my partners parents didn't invite us anyway! Bit surprised but works well for us doing what we actually want to do!

I think you should just decide what you want to do and with whom and do it! You may be pleasantly surprised at the (lack of) reaction you get!

[cate]

If you are invited somewhere you don't want to be then just say you are having a quiet Christmas at home. It's your prerogative. I don't understand why you would have certain relatives at your Christmas dinner if you haven't invited them. Christmas in general is fraught with anxieties and is completely overrated in my opinion. I used to like to work on Christmas day as I got paid a boat load of overtime and didn't have to worry about what I was going to do. It was always a good atmosphere as well.