The holiday season is definitely an expensive time of year. There are all those gift exchanges, holiday parties and pictures with Santa. Don’t forget about all the food either – that eggnog and the ingredients for your famous Christmas cookies are hardly free.

Usually your wallet can breathe a sigh of relief when it gets to Christmas Day though, especially if you’re spending the day with family and friends. 

If you’ve ever hosted a large family dinner for a holiday like Thanksgiving or Christmas, you know that it takes a lot of work to prepare all of the food. And, if you decide to save yourself some work in the kitchen and cater the gathering instead, you know that all that food can get pretty expensive.

While some families share the effort by having a potluck sort of meal where one person brings a pie and another person brings a bottle of wine, for example, one mother-in-law is taking a different approach, and her son and daughter-in-law don’t know what to think.

One lady recently posted on a discussion board for moms called Mumsnet that she’s going to her parents’ house for Christmas lunch, and her boyfriend was planning to go to his parents’ house for Christmas lunch but is reconsidering it because his mom wants to charge him $21 for his portion of the meal. Mumsnet user Staceyjas says, “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.”

The comments on the discussion board are mixed about 50/50.

Some commenters think the request is completely reasonable. One person commented, “It’s really expensive to cater for Christmas dinner for a lot of people…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.”

However, there are a lot of people who think the request to pay for Christmas dinner is completely outrageous. One person commented, “Cannot think of anything less hospitable than setting the menu and demanding your ‘guests’ pay for it.”

The last comment in the discussion sums up the issue. “People who see it as charging family are horrified, people who see it as sharing costs don’t see the issue.”

For more details about this mother-in-law’s request, watch the video below.

Would you ever charge your guests for a family dinner you’ve offered to host? Have you ever paid a family member for your portion of Christmas dinner?