January 23, 2025 at 1:20 am

Her Dad Wants To Give Her Little Sister A Lump Of Coal And No Presents For Christmas, But She’s Trying To Minimize The Psychological Impact

by Ashley Ashbee

Source: Pexels/cottonbro studio

Christmas is a difficult time for a lot of reasons, many of which are completely out of your control.

But the older sibling in this story wants to reduce the drama by giving her sister the cold, hard truth about Santa.

She thinks that might be better than what her parents are planning.

Keep reading to see why.

WIBTA for telling a kid about the truth of Santa to help their feelings?

I have a little sister I’ll call Kayla.

Our parents divorced when she was two and this is the third Christmas since that she is spending with our father.

Growing up I was told the regular story of Santa. If you are good you get gifts and if not you get coal.

The story was just the start of it.

Some years Christmas it would be regular stockings with stocking stuffers from Santa but some years I’d get coal with a list of things I messed up throughout the year.

I wasn’t a very bad kid, just a hyper ADHD kid who sometimes made mistakes like any other kid.

It really ruined my Christmas, not just on those years, but it made me very anxious every year. It caused a lot of pain and self hate.

Our parents just laughed when it happened

After the divorce, our mom stopped doing this and the Christmases with dad never had an issue either.

And the nightmare is starting all over again.

This year however, I found out that our dad is planning on doing this to Kayla this year.

I tried to tell him not to and why but he just says that she’ll learn for next year.

Kayla is a good kid, even better than I was. She deserves Christmas.

I talked to out mom and she shrugged it off.

I am thinking about telling Kayla the truth about Santa so that she doesn’t think he hates her or that she is a bad kid.

Is this even worse and AITA?

I didn’t know there were any kids out there who really got coal! That seems pretty cruel.

Here is what folks are saying on Reddit.

How do you even get coal now?
Source: Reddit/AITA

I bet they literally wash their kid’s mouth out with soap.

Source: Reddit/AITA

You know he’s going to tell the therapist about this, right?

Source: Reddit/AITA

I’m an atheist for other reasons.

Source: Reddit/AITA

I agree. It is abusive.

Source: Reddit/AITA

This sounds like a Christmas nightmare.

If you thought that was an interesting story, check this one out about a man who created a points system for his inheritance, and a family friend ends up getting almost all of it.