Hey Pandas, What Was The Worst Christmas Disaster You've Had? (Closed)

My dad, sister, and I were on our way to my grandparent's house in Wisconsin for the holidays. I was old enough to have learned about Santa, but my sister still got a tickle from the gifts he delivered and set up while we slept. The Volvo station wagon was full of stuff, and the roads were snowy. We had to *inch* along to avoid losing control (rear-wheel drive, regular tires), and when we finally exited the interstate into my grandparent's neighborhood, my dad took the ramp about 1 MPH too fast, and we spun off the road, striking a tree stump going backwards. No one was hurt (thank you, Volvo, for making a SOLID car), but the impact on the rear was enough to pop open the tailgate, and a bunch of the stuff spilled out, including gifts that were hidden and labeled "From: Santa." My sister saw them, and I could tell she was confused and disappointed. We got towed out of the mess by a neighbor with a tractor, and my dad used twine to rig the tailgate shut. We arrived at my grandparent's house late, cold, exhausted, and relieved to finally be there. My sister tried to act like she was surprised by the Santa gifts on Christmas morning, but she ended up crying and everyone felt bad. It was a bummer of a holiday.

On December 19th, 2000, my eight year old nephew (son of my sister), Tony, died. He was digging a tunnel in a freshly-plowed pile of snow, when he got stuck because of his slippery snowpants, and the angle in which he was digging, ultimately suffocating. My sister's Golden Retriever tried to get him out, but was unable, so she went to the neighbor's door to get help. He was life-flighted from the local hospital, to Theda-Clark in Neenah, where he was declared brain-dead, and his organs were donated. Worst. Christmas. Ever. This tragedy tore our family apart, and our lives have never been the same.

My father abandoned my Mom and us kids(6) 9 days before Christmas. I was 8 years old.

Last Christmas was the WORST CHRISTMAS EVER, or as my husband likes to say, "No, honey, it's the worst Christmas SO FAR." Hubby and I both got sick. We both had Influenza A and I had double pneumonia. I was in the hospital for 5 days while hubby was trying to hold things down at home while he was sick. I got out of hospital on New Year's Day. I was still hacking junk up as of Memorial Day. Our pet ferret, Chewy, escaped for three days and was living under the house next door. We were ECSTATIC to get him back. Then he caught the flu from us and died. Not sure what we did to p**s off the Universe, but it well and truly sucked.

Coming home after a family Christmas party, my dad hit a deer. Little Brother was sleeping in the back windshield space (a weird family habit we both enjoyed), and rolled down on top of me -- leaving us both squashed on the backseat floor.
We all crawled out to look at the poor animal. Brother and I burst into tears, sure that Dad had messed up Santa's plans for the night: "You hit Rudolph, Dad! How could you..."
I'm sure the car was messed up -- and have no idea whether we used the meat or not. But I do remember sobbing about Rudolph. Poor guy. (My dad, not Santa's team leader.)