Sister-in-law charges guests £45 ($47) each for Christmas dinner

Is everything always merry and jolly at Christmas time? This is not always the case, and can be prevalent in the family, when the holiday period can turn out to be the opposite of the harmony, lightheartedness, kindness and empathy one might expect. Unfortunately, there are situations that are capable of destroying even the most joyful celebrations, and certainly the story we are about to tell you today is one of these. The context is Christmas time and the event is the family dinner on December 25th - a dinner which turned out to cause quite a bit of friction in the family ...

via The Sun UK

Austin McGee/Wikimedia - Not The Actual Photo

Posting her story on the web anonymously, a woman tells the story about her sister-in-law who asked each guest expected for the Christmas dinner she organised for £ 45 ($ 47). This cost was calculated per person and based on the amount of food that was purchased for everyone. This total was then divided by the number of members of the family who would be the dinner guests. This rather brazen demand did not sit at all well with the anonymous author. She said that in the three years previously, she had been the one to host the family in her house for Christimas dinner. And on those occasions, her sister-in-law had brought a bottle of wine, a prepared dish or had chipped in to help with the overall expenses. In the latter case, she said, any left-overs were shared amongst all the guests.

Here is what the anonymous woman said: "To get to my sister-in-law's house you have to take a rather long car journey. We never charged anyone when we hosted Christmas dinners at our house. As my sister-in-law and her family are quite well off, so I  suggested that maybe £ 45 each was a bit too much to ask guest for. We would have to pay £ 45 anyway just to drive the two hours to their home and back and obviously, most people wouln't be able to drink when they got there. The alcohol would be paid for by everyone, but many would not be able to indulge because they would have to drive."

Timothy J/Flickr - Not The Actual Photo

Many users who read this story with great interest agree with the anonymous author and have openly condemned the mean-spirited decision of her sister-in-law: if on previous occasions the sister-in-law herself has never had to pay to participate (and eat and drink) at a Christmas dinner, why should her guests have to do so this year?

In a situation as sensitive and socially awkward as this, how would you have reacted?