12 People Whose Christmas Was Full of Twists and Turns

The holidays are meant to be a time of surprises and miracles, and indeed, they often are. However, occasionally, the magical season also brings unexpected twists that might catch us off guard. The people in this compilation have experienced some significant plot twists during Christmastime. Whether these surprises were wonderfully great or not so pleasant, one thing’s for sure—they will forever remain engraved in their memories.

• I worked on Christmas day at a fancy hotel because I knew the tips would be insane. And they were! We were getting hundreds of pounds per table (there were about 10 people per table and about 10 tables). We were working extra hard because not many of us agreed to work, but we really put in the effort once we knew we’d be walking away with a couple of hundred quid each, if not more. The tables were very sympathetic and kept thanking us for working on Christmas day.
  The owner of the hotel realized what was going on and came down towards the end of the event and took all the cash. We presumed he was going to split it between us, but our manager came down and told us the owner was taking it to throw us our Christmas Party. The Christmas party that was already booked and paid for and included about 80 other staff who didn’t want to work on Christmas Day. © Vampyrebyte / Reddit

• One year, I got what was actually a super cool present. My parents had worked for months putting together this awesome art kit. It was a big toolbox filled with good scissors, glue, paint, colored pencils, glitter, and every other thing a crafty little kid could want.
  The problem was, every time they would go upstairs to add to it, they had a running joke where they would say, “We’re going upstairs to feed your present” or “We need to take your present for a walk...”
  So, of course, on Christmas morning, instead of being a little kid who was stoked to get a huge box of art supplies, I was a little kid who was devastated that I didn’t get a puppy. © funky_grandma / Reddit

• I missed my train to go home for Christmas from college due to a crash near the station. I was completely broke and knew I wouldn’t be able to afford another ticket. I knew I’d have to spend Christmas alone in my sad student house. I was bawling my eyes out on the platform when a janitor appeared out of a hidden stockroom under a stairwell and brought me some tissues.
  He found out why I was so upset and said, “Leave it to me.” He took me to the customer service desk and got them to reissue me a ticket for the next train home. I was so thankful I started bawling again, and he went on his way. Just before I was about to catch my train, he found me on the platform and gave me some snacks and a can of coke. It’s just the nicest thing anyone’s ever done for me. © plantlifer / Reddit

• I had been dating my girlfriend for 14 months. Our first Christmas was low-key because we had only been going out for two months. A year later, we were living about 45 minutes apart. I was finishing college while she was just starting her career. This was going to be our first Christmas. I planned to spend the morning with my family and then drive to her place, where I’d spend the weekend with her. I called her on Christmas day (this was pre-everyone-has-a-cell-phone, so it was a landline call) to see what time she wanted me to get to her place that afternoon. She broke up with me on the phone.
  She told me the holiday had her thinking about spending holidays with her own family, and she couldn’t picture a future with me in it. She didn’t see me as a husband or father to the kind of kids she wanted. So, I got a breakup and insulted for Christmas in 1998. © happychubbychaser / Reddit

• I put together a surprise Christmas for my sister, her husband, and their five kids after finding out they didn’t have any money for presents due to emergency expenses.
  I dropped off family presents for the twelve days prior to the holiday (coats one night, a big dinner one night, hot chocolate kits, etc.), and once my then-husband’s ridiculously rich family found out what I did, they joined the cause. By Christmas Eve, we had about $4k in presents, ranging from clothes to toys to Home Depot gift cards to drop off. I hired a Santa lookalike to ring the doorbell at 10 pm and drop the toys off for us. He also ended up giving them $500 of his own money.
  She still has no idea who was behind it to this day, and I hope she never finds out. She and her now-grown kids still talk about “the magic Christmas Santa visited us.” © gingeslc / Reddit

• I worked for a small production company, and every year prior to my starting there, everyone would get the week between Christmas and New Year’s off.
  Last year, the CEO decided that work wasn’t getting done fast enough, so he took the week away from us. Then, when the work he wanted to get done was finished just days before Christmas, he so graciously gave us the week back as a thank you for our hard work. At least two of my coworkers had to cancel trips they had planned because they were out of PTO.
  I got fired from that job last month, and I do not miss it. © condog1035 / Reddit

• The entire family gathered together, and everyone is opening nice gifts. I got my husband a very nice watch, a leather laptop bag for school, and his favorite cologne (which was expensive also). I spent a good amount on him. He hands me my gift. I open it. It’s a handheld vacuum cleaner.
  The entire family goes silent. I looked at him with an “Are you kidding me!” look. He says with a smile, “So you can vacuum out your car and don’t have to spend quarters at a car wash!” I went into the bedroom and bawled. This was the only thing he got me. © Mrs239 / Reddit

• I worked for a car dealership owned by a billionaire who owns over 100 dealerships and 4 NASCAR teams. One day, about a week before Christmas, they called us all into the management tower and gave us all an envelope. They were all smiles and happy, and we thought we were getting a Christmas bonus.
  It was a Christmas card with a picture of him and his wife on his $27 million-dollar yacht.
  No money. No gift card. No nothing. Just a picture of a completely self-unaware rich individual smiling joyfully.
  The worst part was seeing some guys hanging theirs up in their cubicle, as if he was their buddy or actually cared about them. © rogueleaderfive5 / Reddit

• I was told going into Christmas that we were broke, and I shouldn’t expect much if anything, which I was fine with, to be honest. We chose to celebrate at the grandparents’, so no gift openings at home apart from some chocolate in my stocking from dad.
  At the grandparents’, I opened my gift first— a new set of pajamas. I was 13, so they were nice, but not something I was really excited about. Everyone else opened their modest gifts. Parents, grandparents, cousins, aunts, and uncles all had a few gifts each. Usually, my grandparents hand out checks to everyone, $100-200 each grandkid, but this year they said there were no checks. Instead, there was a big surprise.
  My mom handed my sister a card—the final gift. Inside was a photo of my sister’s new $6,000 horse, which was big, so we had to get a new $8,000 horse trailer, and because the horse and trailer were so big, a new $24,000 truck was needed. © CaptainPartyMix / Reddit

• I worked for a smaller business that did profit sharing, had a banner year, and gave out a minimum of $500 gift cards, even to new employees. I was skipped. I was told it was an accident and that someone just miscounted. I had been there three years at that point and put in some stupid hours, especially after going salary. I wasn’t depending on the bonus, but it was a real kick in the teeth. It made me feel less than, and I started looking at leaving after that because they never made it right, and I was one of three people excluded.
  When I put in notice to leave, my boss knew because he said, “This is about the Christmas bonus, isn’t it? If it was that important to you, you should have spoken up.” I did... I expressed my disappointment. He said, “I just thought you were venting. I didn’t think you’d actually leave over this. I can’t express to you how disappointed I am that you would leave us right now over some gift cards at Christmas.” He never got the point. © Wellthatwasjusts*** / Reddit

• My mom burned her favorite cauliflower cheese for the Christmas dinner. In a panic, she told me and my dad to go collect some more cheese and cauliflower after we finished visiting grandpa’s grave. We visited the grave, forgot to get the cauliflower, and nearly walked into the house when we saw mom through the window. My dad panicked, jumped back in the car with me, and we rushed to get the missing ingredients.
  So we went and got the cauliflower and cheese, and everything seemed good. Mom was happy because she was going to have everything ready for when everyone comes over. I decided that Christmastime is about family, and we should all watch a movie together. None of us had used a DVD player in years, so we called mom in to help.
  She complained about how none of us could even work a DVD player on our own. After a lot of fussing about with the TV, eureka! She’d done it! Then she heard her cauliflower cheese burning in the kitchen. © Limnir- / Reddit

• Years ago, I worked as a paramedic in the ER. In the first few years, we’d receive a pretty good bonus, ranging from $200 to $500 depending on the position. Then the hospital was sold, and new owners decided to cut bonuses, replacing them with a gift certificate for a free turkey from a local grocery chain. At the time, the value was about $15. Most of the staff, myself included, felt a bit dismayed, but we were polite about it. Since not many of us cooked turkey for Christmas dinner, we decided to donate our gift certificates to a couple of homeless shelters in town.
  Management caught wind of it and sent an email to all employees, stating that since we “didn’t appreciate the thoughtful gift provided by the hospital,” there would be no Christmas bonuses going forward. We had tried to pay it forward to someone less fortunate and got slapped in the face for it. © Sparky3200 / Reddit

Plot twists are bound to happen throughout the year, not just around Christmas. The people in this article have shared some truly unexpected turns of events that they would have never seen coming.