24 People Share The Family Drama That Made Their Holiday Dinner Oh-So Awkward

What better way to issue in the start of the holiday season than by sharing stories of hilarious family drama? Chances are someone will get a little too talkative with their spiked egg nog, and it's allll down hill from there. Here's our list of the 24 times family drama led to an incredibly awkward holiday dinner!

Drunk Uncle Ignites Huge Fight Over Santa

One year my Father was going to Arizona for Christmas and my mother was in Connecticut which left me alone that year to fend for myself (couldn’t get out of work, had a lot of overtime work to do plus the triple time and a half made me suck it up for a few days). One of my best friends invited me over to his parents house. I have known them for years and when I walked in the extended family all greeted me as if I were one of them. A few hours pass and we all sit down for a nice dinner. People were talking to the kids asking what they wanted for Christmas from santa when one of the uncles (who was wayyyy to drunk) blurted out that Santa wasn’t real….in a room full of family…..with like 12 children under the age of 13…. The fight that broke out was….the most incredible thing I have ever witnessed….ever. My friend’s dad yells “Chuck are you a f_cking idiot?” followed by screaming of children yelling about Santa, mothers jumping up from the table to go talk to the kids at their table, the drunk uncle laughing, one of the aunts throwing food at said uncle which turned into drunk uncle calling her a “c_nty f_ck”, caused me to burst out laughing so hard that I had to go into the kitchen with my best friend behind me laughing just as hard. During the chaos one child jumps up and screams “I WANT SANTA TO BE REAL” and ran to the big table, grabbed a glass bowl full of beans and throws it on the floor. The parents all freaking out yelling at the kid, yelling at uncle chuck, yelling at each other for what seemed like forever (in reality all lasted about 10 minutes). Probably the most awkward silence I have ever experienced, it also didn’t help that me and my best friend where trying to hold back our laughter to the point where we were bright red in the face and we kept getting really nasty looks from pretty much everyone at the table. After dinner the entire house was silent…..SILENT….accept for that one assh_le kid who smashed the bean bowl asking about Santa….he wanted to continue to believe….so badly (Source)

His Wife Went AWOL

“Where’s your wife?” “I don’t know. Ask her new boyfriend.” Silence. (Source)

Covered in Boy Stuff Means…

Pretty light on the drama side, but my brother was complaining that my teenage niece was stealing all of his sweatshirts. He explained that when he gets them back, “they’re covered in lipstick, makeup, and ‘boy stuff’…..” Now he meant boy stuff as in her boyfriend’s smell/cologne, but it definitely didn’t come off that way and several people just froze and stared until the moment passed. (Source)

Dad Comes Out as a Real Supporter

So, I came out to my super conservative parents last year. They took it great and everything is totally cool. But I decided not to tell my extended family, because I just don’t want to now. We are having dinner, and my cousins wife says how wrong it is that they allow gay couples to be shown on TV, as if it were normal an healthy. She then went on to say how it seriously damaged kids. My dad went from Ted Cruz to Harvey Milk in a beat, and just shut her down. I was just sitting there drinking as much alcohol as possible, trying to avoid any eyes on me. But, it was a nice little Christmas gift to have my dad defend me, without outing me. (Source)

Cheesecake Almost Got Him Sliced and Diced

At friendmas I almost stabbed someone. In my defense, we were having a cheesecake fight and I was cutting a piece of pie and he smeared cheesecake on my face while I had a knife in my hand. (Source)

Smart Dad Acts Super Dumb

We were at my boyfriend’s parent’s house. His dad started lecturing him at dinner about how he’s the only one of his siblings or sibling’s SOs without a graduate degree. His brother and sisters have doctorates. His brother in law and future sister in law are MDs, his other sister’s partner has an MBA, and I went to law school. His dad asked me if I was embarrassed to take someone with “Only a bachelor’s degree” to work functions. So it was fun to get pulled into that. (Source)

Dad Clings to the Man of His Dreams

My dad still isn’t over the fact that I broke off an engagement 3 years ago. Every holiday dinner he somehow slips in how I have robbed them of their perfect son-in-law. (Source)

She Came Right Out and Called Her Mom a…

Not this year, but two years ago my brother and his wife had just separated and were talking divorce when the holidays rolled around. They wanted to pretend that everything was fine during Christmas so the kids could enjoy it then they planned to tell the kids what was going on after the new year. So it is Christmas eve and a bunch of us are at their house for dinner and some gift exchanging. It is awkward as hell because everyone in the room knows about the separation except for the kids. My oldest niece (who was about 13 at the time) was sitting at the table with everyone eating when someone said something about marriage being hard. My niece said, “I’m sure it is. That’s why mom and dad are giving up.” When asked why she thought that she said, “Because mom is a non-stop b_tch who only cares about herself and Dad and all of us are sick of her sh_t.” A hushed awkward silence fell over the room and barely a word was spoken for the next hour. (Source)

Frozen Pizza and Die Hard Got Them Through His Mess

Last January, my uncle got an order of protection against my dad. This means that, legally, my dad cant be in the same room or communicate with him in any way, shape, or form. They were living in a small house on my Aunt’s (their sister) property, and my uncle was becoming increasingly buttholish against my dad for numerous reasons, almost all having to do with my dad not taking his side in arguments against their sister. My uncle also has porphyria (yes its a real thing) and kidney failure, yet utterly refused to do anything about it and continued eating fast food for every meal. My dad, in turn, was becoming increasingly pissed off at him for not taking care of himself, knowing how his two sons were upset about their dad essentially giving up on life in their eyes. So, one day, after finding a doctors test result letter left on the counter that all but said “you’re f_cked”, my dad walked into the kitchen to see my uncle drinking a beer. This is unusual, as my uncle never drank alcohol, and bad because drinking beer with kidney failure is pretty damn stupid. Out of anger at my uncle being completely indifferent to the reality of his stupidity in dealing with kidney failure and the effect it was having on his kids and family, my dad slapped the beer out of his hand. My uncle got in his face and shoved him, and my dad shoved him back, yelled at him, and left the house. My dad didn’t come home for a few days because of a preplanned trip, and came home to locked doors and eventually was served for “beating up” my uncle every day for the whole year. Soooooo this Christmas, instead of us all being together, my cousins left their dad in his own house and came up to my aunts house. Only, no one expected they would do this, so my aunt didn’t plan any Christmas festivities at all. She instead got frozen pizzas if anyone was hungry and that was it. We ended up watching Die Hard until a bar opened. The oldest boy spent the entire night at the bar trying to get laid, and the youngest spent most of it on the phone with his wife back home. I sat there at the bar just drinking and wishing I had a normal ass family. (Source)

He’s Not Slow…Just Drugged

My mom’s new boyfriend came to Christmas dinner, and because of a recent knee surgery, he takes morphine, which causes him to be a bit “slow”. But he’s a really intelligent guy, has an extensive vocabulary, etc. At some point during the dinner, he answered someone’s math question particularly quickly and my grandma says, “What are you, some idiot savant?” We all just kind of stared, and he stammered out a “What?” She goes, “Oh you know, like Rain Man.” Nobody knew what to say. (Source)

Stepford Blondes: They Can’t Remember Who’s Who

My brother is a serial dater – and brings a new girl every time he comes home for Christmas. They’re always along the same lines: model height, tall, skinny, blonde, apply lotion constantly and have been doing yoga since before it was cool. That’s all well and good, except after the 6th consecutive girl like this (I kid you not), it gets kinda hard to remember their name. Fast forward to Xmas dinner this year and my stepmum serves this years girl up dinner and calls her by last years girls name. So awkward. So so awkward. (Source)

They Were Getting Along Great Until Grandpa Asked THIS

This was the first Christmas in which my Grandfather (mother’s dad) and my Father have been in the same room at the same time. For decades my dad thought my mother’s dad hated him because he got my mom knocked up when she was only 16 and he was 25. Truth be told, Grandpa did want to kill him for many years. But by the time I was about 20 years old Grandpa admitted my dad was actually a really cool guy and that he’s the only boyfriend my mother has ever had which he approved of… apart from the whole cradle robbing thing, of course. So despite my dad’s initial anxiety they got along well… Until my Grandpa asked him why he f_cked my mom when she wasn’t even out of high school yet. Dad hesitated and didn’t know how to reply. My uncle (who was a kid when my mom was pregnant with me) was shocked and wanted to jump in to defend my dad because he always liked him. And then grandpa said “just f_cking with you” and we all had a good awkward laugh. (Source)

They Swear Their Play Was All in Good Fun

Nearly the whole of my extended family swear a lot. Not aggressively, it’s just not frowned upon in our family and so we swear casually in conversation. However my aunt decided last christmas that it was bad and started telling everyone off for even the slightest swear word. It became very annoying and petty, so this xmas, my dad wrote a ‘play’ for boxing day entertainment for myself and my cousins to perform. It involved a lot of brilliant swearing and then sarcastic chastising that we ‘must not swear as it is very rude’-blatantly taking the piss out of my Aunt. It wasn’t actually performed in front of my aunt, but she found the script and brought it up over dinner, it became awkward very quickly. Still funny though. (Source)

That Milk Was Stoned Cold Good

My sister came to Christmas so stoned this year it was apparent from the minute I made eye contact with her. I just kinda smiled and shook my head and laughed. We all sat down for dinner shortly thereafter. The whole table goes quite, as mom is preparing to say grace over the dinner. Everyone bows their heads in reverence. She gets about three sentences in, and my sister, nonchalantly grabs her milk glass, takes two or three big chugs of it, and noisily sets it back down on the table, clanging her plate. Knowing this is a golden moment, I looked up. My sister had already returned to the stoic “bowed head position” and was motionless, I don’t think she realized what she had done. Mom was staring at her, with a bitter scowl on her face. Everyone else at the table was staring at her as well. SO hard not to bust out laughing. (Source)

She Started Big Drama Over a Forkful of Food

My new brother in law took a bite of my eldest sisters food at his and my sister’s wedding, and she unknowingly used the same fork. Then she found out, and decided that she should get tested for HIV, which apparently takes 6 months before they can actually do the test, so until then she cannot kiss her kids or husband for fear of infecting them too. So this drama reached a crescendo right before Christmas dinner, complete with yelling and crying in front of children. It turns out my family is straight up bonkers. And no, new bro in law does not have HIV, nor can you get it from sharing a fork, but my eldest sister doesn’t like new bro in law, this was just the latest attack. (Source)

Her Hatred Ruined a Friendship and Dinner

Ten years ago, my mother suddenly decided that she hated my best friend’s mom (who I’ll call Jane) and forbade me from going to his 13th birthday party. She said, “If you go, you won’t have a mother when you come back. That’s just the kind of woman I am. It’s him or me.” I didn’t go, and I never saw my best friend again. This Christmas, my mother casually brings up that she saw Jane at the supermarket the other day. I was surprised as I thought that she hated her. She responds, “Yes, I hate her” and proceeds to smugly explain how she saved our family from Jane’s master plan to ruin our family all those years ago. I flipped my sh_t. But as I spoke, my mother’s eyes began to glaze over, almost as if she heard my words but had just stopped processing them. Believe me, I wanted to continue. I wanted to let her know just how little I thought of her… but I just couldn’t do it anymore. So I composed myself, picked up my plate, and started walking towards the stairs. She couldn’t even wait for me to get up halfway from the chair before she turns to my father and remarks, “You’re so stupid! You never believed me when I said I saved this family, and now look at what you’ve done to our son. Just look how angry moofins is. I WAS RIGHT.” If I had to guess, I’d guess that my mother hated Jane because she was jealous. Jealous that my father might’ve thought that she was prettier and smarter and kinder. Maybe he did have an affair. Maybe not. I really don’t care; what did it all have to do with me? sigh (Source)

Their Speeches Were So Tolerant – Not!

My racist, homophobic grandpa and his sisters all stood up and gave speeches about how gays and Mexicans are evil. In front of my one cousin who is lesbian and the other has a Mexican boyfriend who was there as well. (Source)

He Hated Grace, and She Showed No Mercy

My aunt wanted a moment of silence to “say grace” before eating dinner. My cousin said, “You’ve got a lot of nerve forcing your traditions and beliefs on us non-believers.” At that, my aunt told him that he’d just ruined her Christmas and that he’d never be invited again. At which point he got up quietly and left. (Source)

She Totally Freaked, and Then They Ate Ham

The Christmas after my brother came out is known to us as the “You’re Going to Get AIDS Christmas”. Named, of course, after my mother’s mid-dinner freakout, wherein she started screaming, “You’re going to get AIDS!” at my brother, apropos of nothing. I was like, “We’re all going to get AIDS, mom. Chill.” Then we all had ham. (Source)

She’s Nutty Over This Vegan Dish

My sister recently became vegan and wouldn’t stop loudly proclaiming how revolting the goose was in comparison to her delicious nut roast. (Source)

Dinner Squabble Reveals a Shocking Secret

Two of my cousins (sisters, 20 and 23) got into a fight at dinner and the younger one announced to us (entire family- mid 70s grandparents included) that the older one has been selling herself on craigslist and other websites to get cash for her xanax addiction since she can’t keep a job. Turns out it was 100% true. Pretty much ruined the entire holiday. The younger girl came and stayed with us for a few days and cried the entire time while her parents figured out what they were going to do about her sister. (Source)

His Lazy Woman Has Everything, Except a Heart

On Christmas eve my girlfriends brother decided to propose to his girlfriend of a year. She said yes and we had a little party to celebrate and all was good and fun until Christmas dinner when she found out that at the ring she was wearing wasn’t $1500 as he told her but only $400. So dinner was filled with her comments of how I guess he only loves me enough to buy me a $400 ring. Mind you he busts his ass for her, he’s up to debt pass his eyeballs because of her. She wanted a house, so he bought her a house (one $25k over value because she had to have that particular one), she wanted a kid, so he got her pregnant and they just had a beautiful boy, she wanted a purebred English Boxer puppy, so he maxed out his credit card and got her one. She doesn’t work, or support in any way and rarely cleans the house. Now she wants to be married before the end of the year and based on Christmas dinner I don’t know if they will be together long enough to see that happen thanks to her materialistic ways. (Source)

Her Younger Brother Revealed Her Hidden Life as a…

My cousin who is about 13 days older than me did over 50 amateur porn films last year. Her younger brother (he’s 21) is the one who discovered it and she felt like telling everyone at thanksgiving. Nana was very unhappy. (Source)

She Saved Her Husband’s Life by Doing THIS

During Christmas Breakfast, the topic of guns comes up and my Dad said he had always had a gun but he remembered it being in parts that he didn’t know how to put together and couldn’t remember why. Then, my Mom spoke up and said she took it apart one time when she was so angry she was sure she would kill him. (Source)