The holidays are meant to bring warmth and cheer, but toxic family dynamics can quickly turn festive plans ice cold.

One woman thought a Christmas party would be a chance to mend fences with her mother-in-law.

But when one passive-aggressive comment made her rescind her invite, the drama heats up even more.

Read on for the full story!

AITA for refusing to invite my MIL to XMAS?

My husband (27M) and I (25F) decided to host a big XMAS this year.

We’ve never really done this and our family would just go separate ways after visiting us, so I was really excited.

But some family members were particularly difficult.

However, I’ve never had a good relationship with my MIL.

My husband wants us to get along but it’s just not possible.

She’s ignorant and doesn’t have any boundaries.

But this year, she was determined to try her best to make it work.

Of course, all these past few years we invited her to our house alongside our family, but as I said we never hosted an actual Christmas dinner/party at our home.

Anyway, I wanted to invite her this year — I really did.

I wanted to make things work so we could all have a great time and my husband found it super sweet and I was very happy.

Then came one of the MIL’s trademark passive-aggressive comments.

So, I called to invite her and she said “Oh! Finally, you make a GREAT decision! I think it’ll be your last one though!” and then proceeded to have a good laugh.

I was very surprised and not in a good way.

I told my husband what happened and he just laughed it off, saying stuff like “she’s just like that”.

So she decides she’s not going to stand for this behavior any longer.

I said I didn’t want to invite her into our home anymore and he freaked.

When he was sleeping, I sent her a very polite message saying we want a closer group to come to our XMAS dinner and that it’s not a good idea for her to come.

She didn’t see it yet, and here I am writing this.

I don’t think that it’s okay for her to talk to me like that and then expect to still be invited.

AITA?

Looks like holiday cheer missed this family this year.

Reddit was very divided on where the blame lies in this sticky situation.

This commenter sees right through the convenient excuses her family uses to cover her MIL.

This user thinks her behavior could just make her MIL’s rudeness even worse.

Surely someone else might have better luck dealing with her difficult personality. (Nudge, nudge, husband.)

This redditor thinks there’s more than enough blame to go around.

From bruised egos to flared tempers, it’s safe to say that everyone played their part in sowing holiday discord.

Christmas may be a time for giving, but this family gave each other more grief than grace.

If you liked that story, read this one about grandparents who set up a college fund for their grandkid because his parents won’t, but then his parents want to use the money to cover sibling’s medical expenses.