Family member books relative a vacation as Christmas gift - and then cancels it without telling them

One Reddit user said they canceled the gifted vacation as their relative was already ‘on the way to their destination’

Amber Raiken
in New York
Saturday 28 December 2024 08:00 GMT
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Related: Day after Christmas is the day of gift returns

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One person explained their “petty” decision to take back a Christmas gift they’d given a relative.

In a recent post shared in the popular “Petty Revenge” Reddit forum, one social media user said that they canceled the “gifted vacation” they got a relative without telling anyone. According to the original poster, [OP], this family member is “s***ty” and they’ve had some “differences” in the past. However, the pair “supposedly made up” before the holidays.

“So this year for Christmas I gifted them a vacation they did really want to make. I printed out the booking reservation and gave it as a gift,” they wrote.

However, the relative didn’t offer a gift back, since they allegedly had “too much stuff” to do and they “totally forgot” about the Reddit poster. The relative also continued to make “passive-aggressive remarks” about their family member’s “home and the food,” since the social media user hosted the Christmas party.

As a result, the Redditor said that they ultimately took back the gift, without telling their relative.

“So petty me canceled their vacation without telling them after I knew they were on their way to the destination. Yes, there are fees but I don’t care,” they wrote. “I know they will be to[o] stingy to book anything else and will instead return all the way back home fuming and annoyed.”

The post has quickly gone viral, with more than 8,000 upvotes. In the comments, the Reddit user responded to some people who critcized them for gifting such an expensive present to a family member they weren’t close to.

They poster went on to claim that they were “trapped in” the feeling of needing to help their family and feeling “guilty” about not being there for them.

“So I try to give back or help out with otherwise hard to achieve dreams on Christmas - but yes, definitely am not appreciated and felt also deceived by the whole thing where we ‘made up,’” they added.

In another comment, they claimed that they were expecting their relative to talk badly about them to their brothers. So, they plan to make up reasons for why they canceled the trip, like: “You told [my brother] you found it stupid/cheap/whatever and did not like the gift, so I thought it would be better to cancel.”

Multiple readers continue to criticize the Reddit user for buying the vacation as a gift in the first place.

“I have to ask, if you didn’t really care for this person, why did you give them an entire vacation? Who gives a vacation to people really ever let alone a person they don’t even really like much??” one wrote.

“There are members of my family I somewhat tolerate but if they gave me a vacation I’d sure as hell pretend to like them and be super friendly. That’s just shooting yourself in the foot for no reason,” another responded.

However, others applauded their decision to cancel the trip without telling their relative.

“I love this, not only is this petty but 100% AWESOME! Next year be sure to ask them in front of everybody how was their trip,” one wrote, while another added: “The reason was petty, but the revenge was ruthless.”

“That is petty and cruel. You’re my hero,” a third quipped.

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