Mother-in-Law Charges Family for Christmas Food and People Aren't Having It

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Judging from this woman's post, it sounds like her mother-in-law has had enough of digging into her own pocket to prepare Christmas lunch for everyone and not getting a single dollar back for her efforts.

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She revealed that her husband's mother just asked all of the guests who plan on attending her Christmas lunch to bring $21 per head in order to pay for the meal.

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"[Am I being unreasonable] to think you should ask family to pay for their Xmas lunch? My partner has just told me that his mother who he's having Christmas lunch with said she wants £17 per head from him! I'm going to my family's for lunch so invited him also but he has had it there all his life with his grandparents and siblings too. she said she doesn't want to do it all from scratch and wants to get it all pre-done so it's more money, which I understand but he's gutted and feels like he wants to come to my family now. I can see it from both sides and it's hard work and can be expensive but not like she is financially destitute."

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She then finally asked if anyone else has experienced something like this in the past:"This has never happened before and he has offered to bring the dessert etc but he said handing over cash just feels wrong. As he says it's about family not money but I wanted to see what other people's opinions are? Or if you

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Her question garnered a lot of responses, and it seems like people were conflicted over the issue. More than a few saw the mother-in-law's side of the story, stating that the Christmas dinners she's hosted for people in the past have cost her upwards of $500."It's really expensive to cater for Christmas dinner for a lot of people," says formerbabe, recalling a dinner she hosted. "It cost me over £400. If we do Christmas with my family, we will share cost of food or all bring different components of the dinner...Don't think of it as her charging you but instead think of it as you all contributing to the cost of the food."

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Others agreed with Staceyjas's husband, and said that it probably would've been a better idea for people to instead contribute food and specific dishes instead of just gathering money for the "cost of the food." But she did see where the mother-in-law was coming from."Personally I wouldn't, says another poster, "but if someone asked me for cash I'd pay — it's really expensive hosting, particularly at an expensive time of the year. When we have had Christmas meals as a big group of friends, we split the cost."

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"OMG! No! $*#!, that is horrible. We host Christmas: buy the turkey and pudding, everyone else brings a dish eg sausages in blankets etc. That shares the cost and the work.Cannot think of anything less hospitable than setting the menu and demanding your ‘guests’ pay for it."

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Maybe "take turns each year or ask people to bring a dish if you are short on cash."One prevailing opinion was that individuals who were hosting large-scale dinners for big families would have every right to ask people to help chip in. One person even mentioned that they had 29 people coming over for dinner, so they wrote out the cost and asked everyone to chip in a few dollars to help offset what it cost them to make the meal.

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However, new information from StaceyJas in the comment thread revealed that her mum-in-law was only cooking for four people and a toddler. She couldn't understand what made it different from any other Sunday lunch?

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"My point is she don't charge him for a normal Sunday roast and it's just added bits so why can't he bring them?"

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What do you think? Would you charge someone cash for hosting a Christmas lunch that you're picking out the menu for? Or should mother just bite the bullet and foot the bill herself?

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What do you think