Woman Blindsided After Sister Announces She’s Hosting Next Family Holiday, Gets A Reality Check

Sibling rivalry is real; even if you love your brother or sister to death. It’s often also neverending, so whether you’re five or fifty, chances are, you will bicker with your sibling the same way, maybe just for different reasons.

This redditor experienced firsthand that some things don’t change much when it comes to sibling rivalry. Opening up to a community on Reddit, she shared that she loves her sister very much, but the two have always been somewhat competitive, so when her sister wanted to take over hosting family holidays—a role that was typically assumed by the OP—she didn’t take long to shut her sister down.

Family holiday parties can be a blessing and a curse. On one hand, you get to spend time with your loved ones, maybe even see extended family who you don’t get to interact with that often. On the other, you might find yourself involved in discussions you would rather not be a part of or be reminded exactly why you don’t see certain members of your extended family that often.

According to a survey from 2024, many families—as much as 40% of them—can’t avoid fights or heated discussions during holiday get-togethers. That’s because certain topics seem to work like adding fuel to the flame, which many of us have likely experienced firsthand. Based on the survey, the top five topics that are most likely to trigger family conflicts during the holidays are politics, past family grievances, relationships, finances, and parenting respectively.

Whether or not they manage to stay away from the aforementioned topics, many people still get together with their families on holidays. According to a YouGov’s survey, the largest share of them spend holidays attending a small family gathering. Second on the list in popularity was a friend get-together, followed by a large family celebration.

Not only do they take part in them, some people seem to like it, too! The aforementioned survey found that more than a third of respondents say they enjoy their holiday parties “always” or “often”, and just over a quarter do “sometimes”. Those who admit that they rarely or never enjoy their time at a holiday get-together only comprise up to 13% of respondents.

While getting together on the holidays is important for many people, sometimes, it’s not all about the holiday itself. A Pew Research Center’s survey from 2023 found that for most Americans, family time is far more important than other aspects of life, and it doesn’t have to be a holiday to be important.

The survey’s results show that roughly three-in-four (73%) US adults consider spending time with their family as “one of the most important things to them personally, regardless of how much time they actually devote to it.” (Other things that respondents consider very important in their lives entail being physically active (74%), being outdoors and experiencing nature (72%), and being successful in their career (66%).)

The importance of family time and being outdoors is evident when looking at families’ favored activities to do together. Statista reveals that cooking and eating together tops the list of such activities, but engaging in outdoor activities, such as playing, taking a walk, or going to the park was a close second.

Whether it’s indoors or outdoors, family time can positively affect everyone, but it seems to especially benefit the youngsters in the family. Studies suggest that greater family connection is associated with a higher prevalence of flourishing in life.

The OP shared that when all of her family gets together, it adds up to quite a large group of people, both young and old. But she loves hosting and having them in her home, which is why she has been hosting family holiday get-togethers for the past decade. That’s likely to be the reason why her sister wanting to take over came as quite a surprise and resulted in not only an argument, but also in the OP asking if she was a jerk to her sibling. Most of the netizens seemed to believe that she was; they shared their thoughts in the comments.