People Are Sharing Their Jaw-Dropping Thanksgiving Feuds That Ruined The Entire Holiday, And I Honestly Can't Believe Some Of These
Every year, I collect Thanksgiving horror stories, featuring people's "trashy" relatives and friends doing seemingly everything in their power to ruin an otherwise fine holiday. (And every year, I'm reminded that people are the worst.) These are the Thanksgiving mishaps that people will never forget or forgive, along with responses from members of the BuzzFeed Community.
1."My mom picked up an entire stick of butter with her hand to butter her corn. No wrapper — just hand to bare butter stick."
2."My wife’s family decided that we would all make homemade ice cream instead of doing traditional desserts. It was fun, and all of the kids enjoyed it a lot. But when we were done making the ice cream, my wife’s aunt put the ice cream aside and proceeded to pull out some shitty store-brand ice cream to serve the kids. She explained that the homemade ice cream was only for the adults, so the kids would get store-bought ice cream because they 'couldn't appreciate the good stuff' anyway. The kids were really put out, and some tears were shed. I spoke up and said to let the kids have the stuff they made — at least a little bit. I mean, in my family, the kids are the focus on holidays. My wife's aunt refused, saying, 'No, there wasn’t enough to go around,' and 'You don’t understand, you don’t have kids.' She added, 'If you want them to have some so badly, then you can share your portion with them.' I said, 'Alright, then.'"
"So when I went to serve myself, I got a big-ass salad bowl and filled it all the way to the top, grabbed six spoons, and then went and sat at the kids’ table and we all just pigged out on my 'portion.' Since there was hardly any left, my wife's aunt had to pull the shitty ice cream out of the fridge and eat that instead, sulking. I was worried my wife was going to be pissed and tell me off once we got in the car, but instead, she laughed her ass off and told me she loved me."
3."I hosted a Friendsgiving once, and one of my friends had too much to drink, so she stayed overnight on the couch. The next morning, I woke up to find she made three plates of leftovers, including all the turkey, to take with her. Fortunately, I caught her in time because I was so busy hosting that I never even had a full plate. If she had asked, I likely would have said, 'Sure, make a plate.' But she didn't ask... And she's not poor or anything. She was just being selfish."
4."My aunt invited all of us over to her house for Thanksgiving, which was out of state. All food and drinks were going to be provided by them, so our family offered to bring something, anything, just as a thank-you. My aunt insisted that we shouldn't. The dinner was good, and it was an overall great Thanksgiving. Well, about a month later, we got a request from that aunt proclaiming that we now owed her $75 to cover the cost of the meal. My parents were furious, as we had just spent a lot of money to go down and see her and had even offered to lighten her load by bringing some of our own dishes. They honestly wouldn't have been mad if it weren’t for the fact that she didn’t even tell anyone about this when she was giving out invitations."
5."The morning after Thanksgiving, I heard a noise in my backyard. I found my mother-in-law digging through the trash. I asked what she was looking for. She said she was going to boil the turkey bones and very little meat she could find from the trash to make us turkey soup for lunch. I stopped her course. I saved us from food poisoning — aka dumpster turkey soup!"
—Anonymous, California
6."My aunt, uncle, and cousins make no food and take 90% of it home as leftovers. They also arrive late and leave first."
7."My trashiest Thanksgiving will always be the year my Dad and uncles all got drunk and had a fistfight in the dining room. The five of them and my grandfather, who tried to step in but got caught in the crossfire, all had to go to the hospital. At least those involved split the ER bill for my one uncle without insurance."
8."My sister’s boyfriend, 'Toad,' attended every holiday celebrated for the seven years they were together. I could share his 15-minute rant over 'what I was trying to prove by making homemade bread,' his ability to monopolize every conversation, or how he knew more than everybody else in the room, but the Thanksgiving memory I will never forget is the year we went to my brother’s house. My brother had just finished renovating the first-floor bathroom but hadn’t gotten around to putting a lock on the door. I think any normal person would respect a closed bathroom door, but not Toad. As I was using the facility, Toad came in..."
"...He sees me on the pot and proceeds to attempt to engage me in a conversation. From the time he steps foot in the bathroom, I am yelling at the top of my voice for him to leave. I start pitching things within reach at him, and EVENTUALLY, he leaves the bathroom. Grinning. My sister only stopped seeing him when he started simultaneously dating another woman."
—Anonymous, Ohio
9."One year, my cousin brought his new girlfriend to Thanksgiving dinner. Everyone brought something, as it was always a huge gathering of family. That year, everyone brought a side and a dessert while my mom made the turkey and mashed potatoes. Halfway through dinner, my cousin and his girlfriend got into an argument all because he said he was excited to eat his grandma’s homemade apple pie instead of his girlfriend’s store-bought cupcakes. She got up from the table and left the room. We just continued to eat, figuring she needed time to cool off. When she still hadn't returned a half-hour later, my cousin went looking for her. Turns out she took every single dessert and left, taking his car. My mom ran to the only place open, Royal Farms, and brought back every flavored ice cream and Hostess Cupcake package they had. Touché, cousin’s girlfriend."
10."My husband's brother and his other brother's wife always disappeared for about 20–40 minutes at the same time. This happened for four years in a row before anyone got nosy enough to go looking for them. My sister-in-law is now married to the Thanksgiving-hookup brother."
11."My husband and I love cooking, and we’re good at it; my mother-in-law is not. One year, we offered to help with the cooking by making all of the side dishes and bringing them to her house. We said we would cook everything but she needed to do the salad and the turkey. I spent a week cooking and preparing; I let my MIL know what we needed the day of and all the stuff we were bringing in an email exchange. Well, when Thanksgiving rolled around, she needed me to make the turkey. Whatever, I made it work. Later when I’m finishing the dishes and starting to reheat everything in the oven, my MIL starts pulling out her own trays of food and saying she needs to reheat the meal. The woman made an entire meal even though she asked me to cook the sides. I was livid. My husband and I refused to eat her food and left as soon as we finished eating dessert. To this day I regret not yelling at her for it. Lucky for her, I didn’t have the confidence to stand up for myself then."
—Anonymous, 29, New Jersey
12."My aunt always brought several large plastic containers and would begin packing up 'leftover' food for herself immediately after everyone had filled their first plate. If you thought you might want seconds, you had to take them the first time around, because there was often nothing left after she'd filled her containers. Of course, if you did that, she'd make a snide comment about how much food you were eating. I don't recall ever seeing her sit down with a plate to eat with us — she was always in the kitchen packing up the food that she hadn't paid for or prepared."
"Her daughter, 28 at the time, wouldn't speak to anyone and fed the shrimp appetizers to the cats. They're no longer invited."
13."I was at my wife’s uncle's house for Thanksgiving, and his wife decided to play their wedding video right after dinner, since it was their anniversary weekend. She looked for a half hour to find the videotape and gathered the group of 25 to watch it in the living room. In the video, right as she’s walking down the aisle, midway down the aisle, it goes fuzzy and cuts to...Dale Earnhardt’s funeral. Uncle Joe used that tape to record Dale Earnhardt’s funeral. Everyone froze in complete shock, and I started laughing. I felt like I was in a sitcom, but it was real life."
14."One of our Friendsgiving guests brought over a large platter of chilled and cracked stone crab claws (a seasonal Florida delicacy that sells for $30–50 per pound, depending on size). My brother grabbed the entire platter, set it in front of himself, and began digging into it as if it were his own personal plate. No one else got any."
—Anonymous
15."My mother-in-law is trashy every Thanksgiving. My wife and I host, about 15 people come, and everyone brings side dishes. Not her mother, though. She only brings stuff for herself. She proudly announces that whatever she brings is just for her. It's not for diet purposes, because she eats all the other food, too. Also, she treats our guest room and bathroom like a hotel: When she leaves, she takes the toilet paper rolls, the tissue box, paper towels, and soap."
16."My trashy, bigoted cousin got into a fight with my sister because she (my cousin, not my sister!) kept claiming that Jewish people were somehow trying to track everyone with vaccines. After no one took my cousin’s side, she decided to 'get back' at my sister by telling my sister’s 6-year-old daughter that Santa wasn’t real. It was horrific."
—Anonymous, 37, Rhode Island
17."My mother told our aunt to help herself to some leftovers, and she took a nearly full bottle of $350 whiskey. She got called out on it and claimed to have 'accidentally grabbed it, sweetie, no big deal.' She returned it half full, so either she chugged some in the car or dumped some out in spite."
18."My uncle and grandfather don't have a good relationship but were tolerating each other, because...Thanksgiving. My uncle was cooking lasagna and my grandfather decided to help, so he grated the cheese. Flash forward to dinnertime: The food is coming out, and as tradition dictates, we always start with lasagna. My grandfather made some joke, like, 'I know you hate me, but at least I'm grate,' and the shit hit the fan. My uncle literally went into a rage and was yelling at everyone. He proceeded to flip the table that ALL the food was on. My grandfather called him outside to settle the score, which resulted in two grown men fistfighting in the backyard, culminating with my granddad getting thrown into the pond and slicing his leg on a jagged rock. The rest of us ordered Chinese food and kicked my uncle out."
19."My cousin's husband ate probably 5 pounds of turkey and got thirds of all the sides my grandmother worked all day to make. After he ate, he got up and left. He waited in the car for my cousin. Never cleaned up his plate, and never said thank you. Trash."
20."At my ex-wife's mother's house, we would have turkey, ham, sausages, and all kinds of sides. I was used to taking small amounts to taste everything before going back for seconds. I looked at everyone else's plates, and they had a thin slice of turkey or ham and a little bit of the other things. As soon as the mother finished her plate, she got up and started putting things away in the fridge. The rest of the family sat back down and said how full they were while I still had half of a plate to eat. They sat and watched me until I finished. I was too embarrassed to get more out of the fridge, and when I stopped at Burger King on the way home, my ex asked why I didn't ask for more food."
—Anonymous
21.And finally: "My 'plant mom'-type cousin got into a massive fight with my grandma about whether or not the moon could feel pain. It was balls-to-the-wall insane. Tears were shed. My cousin left halfway through after accusing my grandmother of having a foot fetish. (That accusation made her turn pale, and she didn’t disagree, which is making me a bit concerned.)"
—Sissy, 19, New York
What was your worst (or trashiest) Thanksgiving ever? Tell us about it in the comments, or through this form if you'd prefer to stay anonymous.
Note: Some submissions have been edited for length and/or clarity.
