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‘We’d rather be at Butlins’: People reveal the worst things their in-laws
have ever said at Christmas

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   Metro Illustration
   When your in-laws are desperate to leave… for Butlin’s (Picture: Dave
   Anderson for Metro.co.uk)

   You can’t choose your family, as the saying goes. Worse still, you
   can’t choose your in-laws.

   Never is this so apparent than at Christmas.
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   wrap; excitable, sugar-fuelled children to manoeuvre into bed.

   Add in extended, close-quarter stretches with your parents-in-law and
   their ‘helpful’ comments about how to cook the turkey, and the whole
   thing can ignite faster than a brandy-soaked Christmas pudding.

   Even for those of us lucky enough to get on with our parents-in-law (I
   would like to make it very clear that I include myself in this group),
   Christmas can be a game-changer, transforming fathers and
   mothers-in-law into monsters-in-law of Grinch-like proportions.

   As these beleaguered sons and daughters-in-law illustrate, the festive
   spirit does not touch us all.
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1. Butlin’s blues (Celia)

   My in-laws tried shunning us one Christmas as they had found ‘a really
   good deal to go to Butlins’.

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   meet, so it was a big deal.

   Then my in-laws found the Butlin’s deal.

   I told them they had to come so they went to Butlin’s on Christmas Eve
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   weight’ (Picture: Mmuffin for Metro.co.uk)

   My mother-in-law has always had a problem with the food I feed my
   children and a not-so-subtle way of showing it.

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   Anyway, last Christmas we had agreed to host.

   I could feel my mother-in-law judging everything and anything I served
   up.

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   I was bringing out dessert, a chocolate log I had actually made myself,
   and the conversation comes around to health and diet, mainly led by my
   sister-in-law who is really nice but very health-conscious.
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   gain weight.

   My mother-in-law turns to me and says: ‘That’s the thing you need to be
   careful of, Jade, because obesity runs in families.’

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5. Cold feet? (Charles)

   While staying with my in-laws at Christmas, my fiancee and her mother
   went off on a walk.

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   My fiancee told her that yes, she was sure.

   I don’t mind my mother-in-law, but I won’t ever properly trust her.

6. Sweet and sour (Lisa)

   My parents-in-law used to love spoiling my two children with sugary
   treats when they saw them.

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   I didn’t want to be the b***h who said no.

   So I thanked my parents-in-law – slightly through gritted teeth – and
   said we would put them in the cupboard for later, secretly hoping my
   children would forget about them.

   Later that day, my father-in-law says, ‘Who would like a chocolate
   coin, then?’ and my children, of course, were desperate for one.

   I quietly said to him that perhaps it could be a treat for after lunch
   and my father-in-law replied: ‘This is your crazy diet, not mine. If
   they want chocolate, I’ll give it to them,’ completely undermining me.