Family traditions can be beautiful, but they can also become emotional battlegrounds when expectations don’t align.

When a hardworking train driver finally got both Christmas Eve and Christmas Day off, he wanted to celebrate with his elderly grandparents.

His fiancée, however, didn’t see it that way and insisted they spend all their time with her family.

The fight that followed made the holidays anything but merry.

Read on for the full story.

AITA For wanting to spend a Christmas Eve with my grandparents?

My girlfriend (28) and I (27) have been together since 2020, before COVID.

In 2023, we had our first child, and this year, our second. We are engaged as well.

Up to this point, he doesn’t feel like he’s ever really gotten to celebrate the holidays with his family.

I’m a train driver and have to work on most holidays and weekends, but I’ve always lived like this and have a good balance between work and family.

Since we got together, I’ve always managed to somehow come home on Christmas Eve to celebrate with her family and then worked on Christmas, so I never got to see my family.

So this year, he wants things to be different.

This year, my work gave me both days off, and I really want to celebrate with my grandparents (80 and 75 years old), as I know this might be the last one they host.

But his fiancé strongly disapproved.

So I told her that, and now she’s super mad that I don’t want to celebrate with her parents because “it’s the tradition.”

But it’s her tradition — mine has always been with my grandparents, and I’m just afraid it’ll be the last one.

Our kids love both her parents and my grandparents, so I don’t think they would care much — plus, they’re still small.

And she’s making her feelings known.

Now she’s refused to talk to me for the last two weeks, and it’s been a rough time.

AITA?

He wasn’t asking for much — just one Christmas with the people who raised him.

What did Reddit think?

This commenter thinks his girlfriend is just being downright cruel in her approach to all this.

What this couple really needs is a compromise.

This isn’t what a true partnership looks like.

Everyone deserves a chance to see their loved ones for the holidays.

He just wanted to make a memory with his grandparents before it was too late.

And if she can’t see the value in that, maybe she’s missing what the holiday spirit is all about.

If you enjoyed that story, read this one about a mom who was forced to bring her three kids with her to apply for government benefits, but ended up getting the job of her dreams.