Mom Faces Backlash After Taking Down Christmas Tree Because 'My Kids Don't Have Anything to Open'

A single mom shared the reason she took down her Christmas tree, starting a conversation online.

"Take my Christmas tree down with me because there's no point my kids don't have anything to open under my tree for Christmas morning," the TikTok video begins, showing the mom disassembling the tree.

Erica, on TikTok @electricerica, explains that her video isn't because she's looking for "sympathy." Rather, she aims to "try to normalize what single moms go through." It has since received over 3 million views.

The single mom of six explains, "I work full time and that's barely enough to get us by. Nothing beyond the necessities."

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"I'm forced to now get a part-time job on top of my full-time job," she says, asking that people "watch and engage" so that they can "help someone who is doing everything to help herself and still failing."

The comments are filled with criticisms of the mom, as people took fault with how she handled the situation.

In follow-up videos, Erica explains it's important to her to put her energy into being a "happy, present mother," and says that's a more significant thing she can give them than material items.

"Every day this week, I woke up looking at the tree, knowing I wasn't going to be able to put anything underneath it for them," Erica says, addressing the backlash. "It was stealing the joy from me, and those emotions that I was feeling was making me miserable and I refuse to let my children have a miserable mother and a mother that is so overwhelmed by the hardships of life that she's not present in her children's lives."

Related: Strangers Support Dad Facing Kids’ First Christmas Without Their Mom: 'Never Felt So Overwhelmed with Joy'

In the comments, people noted that there are organizations that could help her kids get gifts for the holidays. Others pointed out how, earlier that same day, she posted a video where she drove 11 hours and rented a hotel room to have a family visit with her 1-year-old twins' father, who is currently serving time in federal prison.

"You had money to drive hours and stay in a hotel to visit a man in jail, why didn't you use that money for gifts for your kids?" a user commented on her video of the visit.

"Where there is a will there is a way," another commenter wrote on a video of her defending her Christmas tree takedown. "They have toy banks for people they have help for your kids you could look into it maybe, but this is worse on your kids and you’re being selfish taking this tree."

Erica clarified in a follow-up video that she and her young children will be spending Christmas Eve and Christmas at her oldest daughter's house, spending the holiday "opening gifts over there — the gifts that she has bought for my children."

In a final video addressing the situation, Erica says that she expected people to disagree with her, but was floored by the "ugly" comments left on her videos.

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