Every holiday season, we hear from readers who feel trapped as the \u201cdefault host\u201d \u2014 the one with the biggest space, the most patience, or the weakest boundaries. This story comes from someone who finally hit her breaking point after six years of cooking, cleaning, and footing the bill for everyone else\u2019s Christmas.What she discovered about holiday \u201ctraditions\u201d might surprise you \u2014 and reveal who\u2019s really benefiting from them. Here\u2019s her letter.For six straight years, Christmas magically ended up at my place. Not because I begged for it. Not because I adored playing holiday servant. But because I had \u201cthe biggest and most convenient apartment,\u201d everyone quietly decided that made me the official, unpaid Christmas employee for life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Every single year, I cooked for 12\u201318 people. I scrubbed the apartment for days. I decorated. I planned the menu. I hauled groceries. And yes \u2014 I paid for everything. Alone. Last Christmas? Over $700 out of my pocket. What did everyone else bring? Absolutely nothing. No sides. No drinks. Not even a pack of napkins.This year, I finally dared to say the unthinkable in the group chat, \u201cIf I\u2019m hosting again, I\u2019ll need everyone to chip in for the food.\u201d You\u2019d think I\u2019d asked them to sell an organ. My best friend shot back, \u201cWow\u2026 since when do we nickel-and-dime Christmas?\u201d My cousin helpfully suggested, \u201cIf money\u2019s tight, just make less food.\u201d And one friend actually had the audacity to write, \u201cWell, it\u2019s at your place, so it makes sense that you handle the cooking.\u201dThat\u2019s when it hit me: these people weren\u2019t confused. They weren\u2019t unaware. They were comfortable. Comfortable watching me burn out, bankroll their holiday, and smile while doing it. So I stopped smiling. I replied, \u201cIf no one wants to contribute, then Christmas dinner at my place is canceled. Someone else is welcome to host.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Every holiday season, we hear from readers who feel trapped as the \u201cdefault host\u201d \u2014 the one with the biggest space, the most patience, or the weakest… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":27444,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27443","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"views":163,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsinbr.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27443","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsinbr.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsinbr.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsinbr.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsinbr.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=27443"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/newsinbr.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27443\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27445,"href":"https:\/\/newsinbr.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27443\/revisions\/27445"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsinbr.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/27444"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsinbr.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=27443"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsinbr.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=27443"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsinbr.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=27443"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}