In an ideal world, the holidays would be about spending time with the ones you love, being thankful for being together, and giving gifts just to show appreciation for one another… but we all know someone who turns the special day into one big ceremony.

Someone on r/MaliciousCompliance posted this story of how hard she tried to please her ex-husband’s parents. Seeing how far they went with their Christmas decorations, she was determined to impress the in-laws with gift-wrapping skills that would meet their standards… except they weren’t even happy with how she did that. To make things worse, her then-husband wasn’t impressed either and said she should just let him deal with it. Unfortunately for him, he ended up regretting it when she took him up on that the following year.

Image credits: Laura LaRose (not the actual photo)

Someone shared this Christmas horror story

Image credits: seriouslampshade

Why are we not surprised that someone from such a “traditional” family expected his wife to take care of all the planning and gift-wrapping, too?

Even though Christmas is supposed to be the most wonderful time of the year, it’s no secret that stress goes way up in December, and people who handle the holidays this way certainly don’t help. Being stuck in a confined space with one’s family is cited as one of the main reasons why the holidays drive people crazy, but high expectations also make the list—if you’re expecting a perfect day where the decorations are all hanging the right way and everything goes according to the rules, the pressure could make your holiday gathering a nightmare for anyone who shows up.

Financial stress is another big factor, as evidenced by this survey in the US that revealed that it makes as many as 45% wish they could skip Christmas altogether. We can imagine that rising pressure to spend more on decorations, like this person experienced when she felt like she had to live up to her in-laws’ decorating standards, doesn’t help.

To all of our readers who are celebrating Christmas, we hope you’re able to spend your day making warm memories with the people you care about. The intentions in your gifts will always be more important than the kind of wrapping paper or ribbons on them!

Commenters agreed that this kind of snobbery has no place in Christmas

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