Unpopular opinion: my grandma's annual Christmas Eve 'surprise' singalong is actually a test of who can pretend to enjoy it the longest

I was at her house last weekend when she pulled out the lyric sheets and my cousin Mike whispered to me that he'd rather clean the gutters, so we both snuck off to the garage for 20 minutes pretending to look for a flashlight.

3 comments

3 Comments

wrenh652mo ago

My younger cousin brought a kazoo last year and my grandma actually made him play it through all 4 verses of "Jingle Bells" by himself lmao. The flashlight trick is genius though, I'm filing that one away for December 24th.

bennett.patricia1mo ago

My grandma once made me do "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" on a kazoo at a family gathering back in 2008, and I still get flashbacks every time I hear that song in a store. The flashlight trick is good on paper but in practice I've bumped into three end tables and a sleeping dog trying to sneak to the bathroom that way. Your cousin's kazoo move sounds rough but honestly it takes real guts to commit to that level of chaos at a family event. I'm more of a "drop my phone loudly and pretend I need to go find it" kind of escape artist myself.

wrenh652mo ago

Last Thanksgiving my aunt tried to pull this with "The 12 Days of Christmas" and I started a silent competition with my cousin to see who could slip away first. I won by offering to grab more eggnog from the basement, then I just sat on the steps for like 10 minutes scrolling my phone before heading back. It works way better than the flashlight trick because nobody questions a drink refill run, plus you can stretch it out if you wait until the really boring verses start.