Woman Debates Canceling Christmas Dinner After Family Members 'Stole' Her Thanksgiving Leftovers

Mar. 15, 2025

Stock photo of a family eating from table during a big dinner.Photo:Getty

Getty

A gracious dinner host was left in shock when she woke up the day after Thanksgiving to find all of her leftovers missing.

In a recentposton Reddit’s “Am I the A——?” forum, a woman said her family “stole” all of her Thanksgiving leftovers after she and her husband prepared an abundance of food for the holiday dinner.

According to the original poster, the couple made two turkeys, a ham, 20 pounds of mashed potatoes, two pans of stuffing and a sweet potato casserole for the festive meal.

Stock photo of putting food into containers.Getty

“We had a lovely evening, good food, good drink, good company,” the woman wrote in the post. “Later in the evening, when people were packing up to go, my husband had bought some plastic leftover containers for this moment and said help yourselves to some leftovers.”

After offering leftovers to the guests, the two left the kitchen and returned to socializing. Before going to bed, the wife went to put away the remaining food and saw nothing left, so she figured someone else handled the clean-up.

The woman claimed that she woke up the following day “starving, dreaming of turkey, mashed potatoes and gravy,” but opened her refrigerator to major surprise.

“I opened the fridge and stood there in shock,” she wrote, adding that “it was empty except for a bag of turkey wings and half a bag of dressing.”

In disbelief, the host proceeded to check her second refrigerator and found nothing there. “I sat in shock, trying to comprehend what had happened to all of that food,” she wrote.

The woman then asked her husband if he offered the leftovers to their relative’s charity organization, to which he said no, but explained that he noticed people leaving their house with excess food.

Stock photo of a woman looking upset in a kitchen.Getty

The husband claimed he saw “another relative and his entire family carrying out the food that they had brought, unopened dessert that the in-laws had brought, in addition to gallon ziplock bags of the food that we had made.”

“Now I don’t want to host Christmas because of this greedy behavior,” she wrote.

The poster ultimately concluded that she will adjust her behavior in the future when hosting, stating that she will “follow through and put up the part I want to keep before enjoying the festivities and that way everyone has a good time and we get a second plate the next day.”

Stock photo of a man serving a traditional roast turkey.Shutterstock/Drazen Zigic

Shutterstock/Drazen Zigic

Now, she is considering hosting Christmas, but stated that “it will be more of a potluck situation.”

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Another added, “Wow! I would not host for them for at least 10 years, if ever again. How can they justify taking everything?”

Fellow users then shared their own horror stories of people taking all the leftovers from events, such as weddings and funerals.

One person wrote, “Are our families related? I had family members take ALL the leftover food from my mother’s funeral. It was for my brothers and our kids. Relatives from my deceased father’s side took everything, even took food out of my refrigerator.”

source: people.com