Daughter Reads Her Family's Christmas Card Out Loud And Says It's Full Of Lies
Just because it's Christmas, that doesn't always mean there's holiday cheer.
RDNE Stock Project / Pexels For people who have a toxic relationship with their family of origin, the holidays can be a difficult time of year. There may be expectations placed on you that you can’t or don’t want to meet; there’s likely to be tension, hurt feelings, and emotions running on high.
Cylie Stuhler captured the frustration that many people feel during this time of year, especially with so many built-in pressures to have a picture-perfect holiday season.
The young woman read her family’s Christmas card out loud and declared that it was full of lies.
Stuhler shared a TikTok post of herself quoting lines from her family holiday card, letting her friends and followers know how far from the truth the contents were.
“To anyone who received my family’s Christmas card: Where it says, ‘The girls are all doing well and [are] happy,’ that’s false,” she announced.
“I was not under the impression I am doing well and I’m happy,” Stuhler continued. “So, just know that that was scripted. That’s not the truth.”
In the caption, she wrote, “Nor did they ever ‘visit me’ like it was stated.”
Photo: Molnar Tamas Photography / Pexels
Her post garnered over 400,000 views and over 50,000 likes, highlighting how relatable it was to other people who may be experiencing the same thing.
As one woman commented, “I’ve never understood writing up a Spotify Wrapped for your Christmas card,” referring to the pattern people maintained of sharing solely their greatest hits and ignoring the moments where they were knocked down, broken, and crying.
Stuhler’s brutal honesty about her family’s Christmas card offered a refreshing perspective, one where she was not trying to hide her reality. She owned the fact that she was not actually happy. She was not scared to share that information.
Her truth is her truth, even though it’s Christmas.
Photo: cottonbro studio / Pexels
If we share holiday cards with those we care about most, isn’t it only right to let them know if not everything is perfect? Hopefully, they would still show us love, grace, and care. Hopefully, they would have compassion for our struggles, especially when we’re expected to be entirely joyful.
The advent of Christmas doesn’t mean that our daily struggles disappear. They often become even more pronounced because we’re expected to be merry and bright.
Stuhler’s candid Christmas card revision shows just how pervasive the concept of comparison culture has become.
Comparison culture can be defined as the habitual and harmful practice of measuring your life against someone else’s experiences. According to YourTango’s survey of 723 people on the topic of comparison culture, 62% of those surveyed felt like comparison culture was problematic in their lives.
The main emotions that respondents felt when comparing themselves to others, particularly through social media, were inadequacy, jealousy, and sadness.
The holidays often unearth deeply rooted emotions. For families operating as part of a dysfunctional system, the pressure to seem perfect in festive moments might be higher than ever.
Yet as Stuhler’s bold take on holiday updates shows, not everything is perfect at all times. Most things are far from perfect, most of the time. Perhaps if we collectively acknowledged the challenges we face, we’d all feel less alone.
Alexandra Blogier is a writer on YourTango's news and entertainment team. She covers mental health, pop culture, and all things to do with the entertainment industry.