r/AITAH•
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AITA for not wanting to spend Christmas at my dad's place?

Sorry in advance for the wording being all over the place!!

For context, my parents are divorced. Mom has a fiancee (they have been dating for 5-6 years now but wanna get married after both me and my brother graduate so they can move to the town most of my fam lives in. Which is about 1 hour worth of driving away. It's relevant for later context i think) that has 3 kids from a previous marriage and my dad has a girlfriend with a kid from a previous marriage.

Usually, we spent Christmas with mom and New Year's with dad. Except dad will be working ts New Year's and we only recently found out when I asked if we can spend the Christmas eve at his place (We are spending Christmas at my mom's bf's parents due to majority vote. This family is a democratic state after all.) because I wanted to spend the Eve with my friends, as per tradition.

Well, this far we celebrated Christmas at my mom's parents, but we don't talk with them anymore. This would be the first year we hold Christmas at my mom's bf's parents. And so, it's kind of convenient for my sister (mom's bf's kid) cuz she grew up there before the divorce, so she's also hanging out with her friends this year's Christmas Eve. Except now, as things are, means that neither me nor my brother will be able to spend Christmas Eve as usual, since because the rest of the kids will be there, she won't be able to drive to and from while also looking after em.

On Christmas Eve we usually go caroling since it's a big thing in towns where im from. And since both me and my brother are quite determinated for money, we end up with about 100-150 (converted to usd). But that's mostly because the people know us. The town that my grandparents are at is a bit more modern, caroling is not that popular. And both me and my brother have goals to achive with that money that we realistically won't get if we go there (we spent a Christmas at our uncle's place like 5 years ago and we went caroling and barely anyone opened up).

And so, that brings us back around to the point: we asked dad to spend Eve at his place, after which he argued that we should spend the full Christmas at his place.

I do not want that.

His house is dirty. A few years back, when we still visited him regularly, i would clean around. Vaccum the floors, rewash the dishes cuz they're always suspiciously sticky even tho he claims they're clean, stock up on bathroom necessities etc etc, but I just haven't seen a point to it after a while of nothing changing. So I just started spending a single night, bringing my sheets from home and then leaving as soon as the sun rises with some excuse.

After his girlfriend started coming around, the house looked better. It was clean. It was nice. She implimented trash cans so i didnt have to go all the way to the back of the house to throw stuff out, repainted the walls, etc etc. So both me and my brother started coming around more often.

And then he had a fight with her, the reason which neither informed me of (although I do suspect it's cheating) and she didn't show up again. And the house continued getting dirty again. At which point we haven't stayed over since. We still hang out and go on vacantions, just not at his house.

And so when he said we should spend Christmas at his place I said that if he cleaned up, then sure (As in, the first day of Christmas.). He said that if i wanted to make it clean so badly then I should clean it myself. That he knows that im lazy and my mom is the one that cleans my room (which is like, half true i suppose? I usually leave my room messy, not dirty, and when im gone on vacantion or on trips or stay late cuz of after school classes, my mom will sometimes do my bed and vaccum if she's vaccuming the whole house. I don't make much of a mess either way cuz i either spend my time sleeping or not at home) and that for a woman I don't concern myself with my responsibilities.

..My dude, IT'S YOUR PLACE?? It's your filth?? Why should I spend the weekend before Christmas cleaning YOUR house because YOU want me to stay in there for Christmas even if I told u I don't wanna??

And then he suggested that we go in the montains on Christmas which is arguably worse cuz (besides the fact that we have a house there do we don't have to pay for a hotel so that's where we always go) goes against the whole reason I wanted to spend Eve there in the first place, yk?

Now, don't get me wrong, I wouldn't normally be against spending Christmas with him, despite him being arguably the least festive person ever, but it would all just work against what I have planned, no? If his gf was there it would be a nice Christmas cuz she's very festive and I like her, if he didn't make her mad a few months ago. If he maned up and cleaned his house, i wouldn't object to staying there the first or even second day. It's "not even that hard" to clean the house in his opinion, so I don't get why he wouldn't wanna do it.

My brother agrees with my dad that if i want it to be clean so bad I should just clean myself which like, wow bro, thanks.

At this point I am considering just not getting any money this Christmas and spending my Eve with my siblings at my grandparents.

But at the same time I kinda feel guilty if I say no, cuz he's my dad and he'll spend Christmas alone if that's the case (my brother said "whatever" and that he'll just go where I go).

Would I be the asshole for saying no?

Alsoo if any info is missing despite the extensive yap session, please ask away! Any kid of reply is appreciated ^^

Posted Dec 3, 2025, 1:27 AM UTC

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