Gift-giving during the holidays can be both joyful, but it can also wreck havoc on your wallet.

A father struggling to make ends meet tried to give his son a joyful Christmas, but when someone else showed up with the gift his son wanted most, the envy overshadowed everything.

Tensions rose, and no one left feeling merry.

Read on for the full story.

AITA for not buying my son a PS5 for Christmas?

I (40M) have an 11-year-old son, “Brandon,” with my ex (38F). After many court appearances, I was awarded full custody of my son.

I have been with my current girlfriend for almost a year. She has a son (12M) who does not get along with Brandon.

This Christmas would prove especially taxing financially, and it also happened to be the year his son asked for a lavish gift.

Money has been exceptionally tight this past year, and my hours were cut to part-time recently. Brandon told me that he really wanted a PS5 this year, and I spent months searching for one.

To his credit, this dad really did do his best to find an affordable option.

I did find one being sold for the retail price, but the person turned out to be a scammer.

I ended up buying Brandon some nice clothes, toys, and games for his Nintendo Switch. Brandon opened his gifts and was very disappointed that there was no PS5. He quickly got over it and went to play on his Switch.

But then the day went to absolute garbage.

My girlfriend and her son came over, and her son had gotten a PS5 from his dad. He brought the game system to the house, and my son got very upset.

My son spent most of Christmas in his room, and he was very upset.

Everyone was angry at each other.

I went to see him, and he started yelling at me that I ruined Christmas for him. I did apologize for not buying him the PS5.

I ended up yelling at my girlfriend for having her son bring the PS5.

AITA for not buying my son a PS5 for Christmas?

Sure, this dad was under a lot of pressure, but him taking out his frustration on his girlfriend only made matters worse.

What did Reddit think?

It’s not the money that made him the AH, it was the way he handled the situation as a whole.

He should definitely apologize to his girlfriend after all of this.

This could end up being a good learning opportunity for his son.

This whole situation isn’t what Christmas should be about at all.

He was right to be upset about disappointing his son, but taking his frustration out on someone else he loves is never the answer.

No one deserves to be treated this harshly on Christmas.

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