The holidays should be an enjoyable time for the whole family, but sometimes it can just be stressful.

What would you do if you had been hosting your family for Christmas for the past several years, but now you want to stop because it causes a lot of stress?

That is what the family in this story is going through, but they are worried that it will cause a lot of drama if they tell the family they can’t stay.

AITA for not hosting Christmas?

Here’s the situation, the last few years my wife and I have hosted my In-laws for the holidays (father in law and his wife, my wife’s mother is deceased).

This sounds like a nice tradition.

They usually stay with us for a few days in our guest room over Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, etc.

We get along fine but they are very difficult people to deal with sometimes.

They sound like terrible houseguests.

They pretty much just sit on the couch the whole time on their phones while we cook, clean, serve, etc.

They LOVE to complain about everything (politics, the food, etc), and aren’t really interested in going out of the house to do activities.

We have a 2 year old daughter, whom they love but don’t really help with all that much either.

This is completely understandable.

So, with our daughter become more active, hosting the holidays has become more difficult to the point where we don’t even enjoy Christmas anymore.

We have decided this year that we’re over it and don’t want to host them anymore (at least for this year).

I can see why they don’t want the added stress this year.

Further adding to things is that my wife will be 4 months pregnant with our 2nd by Christmas.

We have been transitioning the guest room to our daughter’s room, so even if they did come, they would have to get a hotel.

Just one more reason not to host this year.

Normally we wouldn’t give much thought to this decision, but my father in law has been dealing with some pretty serious health issues, and it’s possible he may not even feel healthy enough to make the 5 hour drive to our house.

I don’t want to feel like we’re “depriving” him of his time with his grandchildren, but also we want to be able to relax and just enjoy the holidays with our daughter.

This is no surprise.

My wife is even more against the idea of hosting them than I am.

I already know that telling them we’re not hosting this year will be met with anger and disappointment, but AITA for wanting to take back control of the holidays?

Absolutely, these people are under no obligation to host every year.

To me these are precious years with our 2 year old that I want to experience with her and my wife, rather than people who, to be honest, are not very pleasant to be around.

AITA?

If hosting for the holidays makes them less enjoyable, then they should stop and find another tradition that works for everyone.

Let’s see what the people in the comments recommend in this situation.

Here is someone who says the wife should tell them.

This commenter says to suggest an alternative time.

This is a good way to put it.

Planning something for after the holidays makes sense.

Telling them right away is important.

Have yourself a stress-free Christmas.

If you liked that post, check out this story about a guy who was forced to sleep on the couch at his wife’s family’s house, so he went to a hotel instead.