You cannot make other people do what you want. 

As to MIL hosting Thanksgiving, what are any other options?  You cannot make BM stay home and host, you and DH do not want to host. 

As to Xmas, If you have to do with DH and stepkids, so be it. 

The holidays can get pretty annoying when you have all these factors coming in to play. All I can say is that make sure you enjoy the holidays and don't allow anyone to steal your joy. It's sad the BS we deal with especially during this time of year.

Enjoy darling and wishing you many more happy holidays!

I had to put my foot down a couple of years ago with Christmas. I will do whatever the family wants for Christmas Eve. I will have the kids present and accounted for at whatever time in whatever house, dressed however they want me to have them dressed. 

Christmas day- MY HOUSE. Come, don't come. Eat, don't eat. I don't care. I am not leaving my house with my kids to drag them all over the world to see people. If they want us out and about- do it Christmas Eve. 

My kids dad is Jewish, so I don't have to share Christmas. He gets them the day after until New Years every year. It works. 

If you want to keep your sanity, just do Christmas at your house. Tell them to come on by if they want, just give you a heads up if they will be staying for dinner. Dinner will be served at 5 pm. Tell them that this year you aren't doing the run around, but you would love to see everyone if they can come over. 

We'll have Thanksgiving with DH's family. SIL, who has hosted many, many holidays, is selling her house. So it will be nostalgic and emotionally charged. Fine. I will insist that we stay in a hotel. Plans are up to DH. So far, nada. I am hoping that he waits too long and we can't get the dogs boarded--one is diabetic so I am persnickety about where we take them. Then he can either stay home with me, or go see his family. Either way ok with me as his lack of planning is not my crisis to fix. A few days watching junk tv, drinking wine, and cuddling pets sounds like heaven to me anyway.

We also most always go to Skidville for Christmas.Some years I just can't face it (not how I want to spend all my vacation days) and DH and I have taken a trip just the two of us. We did that recently, so won't do that this year. I am not in charge of logistics when planning the Skidville adventure.

DH’s family is already off to a great start at ruining them for me again.

Same, strugglingSM, same.

But, then again they’re perpetually on my sh*t list, because I’m generally still reeling from their shenanigans from summer visitation. 

We live in the same county,state as the inlaws. Skid is the one that does the traveling.

I do Thanksgiving and Christmas at our home, and I wouldn’t have it any other way. It keeps me from having to travel, it’s my comfort zone/safe place, and I can put and end to unwanted BS at any moment, giving DH’s highly manipulative, passive-aggressive parents the boot out the door.

I realize my situation is quite different than a lot of others, but I caught on early that I would be steamrolled if I didn’t speak up and stand up, when it came to the holidays.

I am secretly hoping that MIL and FIL will travel one state over to spend it with drunk BIL and his child. Knowing them, this would be a power trip, one uppish move, because they would take skid with them, without asking DH how he felt about it first, but it would be a total WIN for me. 

In the past years, we’ve had the inlaws over late Christmas Day, for gift exchange and Chinese take-out (it’s our holiday tradition). I REFUSE to entertain DH’s toxic clan Christmas morning. 

I used to worry about all of this, but starting last year, I just didn't. This year, I haven't even consulted DH to consult with BM. I'm hosting Thanksgiving when it's convenient for ME. My family will host Christmas when it is convenient for THEM. We will host Christmas with DH's family when it is convenient for US.

There are just too many factors and people involved, so it's just easier to plan, tell people (BM included) when things are, and let the chips fall where they may. This is especially true with BM and the boys. I'm not interested in working with her to figure out when he family is hosting everything. If the boys miss something to be with her family, then at least they are with family. If she wants to be spiteful and not send them despite nothing else going on, she can explain to her kids why (or, in OSS's case, he'll draw his own conclusions). I've checked out of the holiday drama.

I think you all are well within your rights on Christmas to say that people can come visit you if they want to, or that you'll all be at X location for the day. No need to drag the kids to a million people's houses who don't seemingly want you there so that they get to feel good about "seeing family".

I long for the days that I could just enjoy the holidays, stress-free! The main source of my stress is SO's mother. She always wants to plan the holidays way in advance, before I've even gotten a chance to discuss it with my family. My BIL is a surgeon, so it's really difficult to plan around his schedule. Not to mention, SO's parents live 4 hours away and every year they want us to travel there to celebrate. Well, we have SD's schedule to work around and can never go the same time as SO's sister, BIL and niece. Why wouldn't you celebrate when/where everyone can be together? 

Thankfully, this year SO's parents will be coming here because their house is in the middle of being renovated and we will be celebrating "Thanksmas" at SO's sister's house.  However, SO's mother sent an e-mail the week of Halloween, wanting to know who would be hosting which really bothered me. I lost my father to a car accident in May, so I am not going to feel like hosting ANYONE for the holidays. I think she realized her mistake because she told SO that if she was in my shoes, she would say no.

BM never lets us have SD Christmas Eve or Day, so we don't even ask anymore. If she gets to be there to celebrate with SO's family, great. If not, that's just too bad. We will save her gifts and let her open them when we get to see her.

I am hoping not to have any plans Christmas Eve/Day, so I can just enjoy it at home with SO and the cat. 

Since everyone posted their experiences and they are mostly the same. I wont bore your with my dhs.

The solution was dh finally had to let go of the holiday rope. "BM" you can have Thanksgiving, you can have ALL of Christmas Vacation and that includes New Years eve (she always wanted to give US New Years---how giving) , you have spring break, you have Fathers day you take MLK Columbus Day...you take birthdays and you take all summers too....you take it all.

Wait wait wait YOU CANT DO THAT BUDDY!!!....watch me. And dh did.

Sure we celebrated Christmas and Birthdays but on our terms.

Best decision ever.

Oh and one more thing when they were little we finally had to stop telling BM what dh was going to buy them for Christmas. So not to double buy. When we did she bought the same gifts for the kids for her house that DH said he was buying for our home. Since the kids had to be with BM for Christmas Eve and waking up to the toys,, when they arrived and  opened up our santa toys all we heard was "Ohhhh I got this at moms, we got this too at moms, i got this too at moms, I got this at maternal grandmas....'The sadness on DH face was awful.

Those times were so hard for us, we were barely putting food on the table. BM made sure to ruin Christmas at our house  by buying the same gifts. We returned the toys and got refunds.

It took a few years to realize what the hell was going on. Our goal was to have open communication, be thoughtful and work together for the sake of the kids well being. NOT our bm's but of course I would imagine she would say it was allllll a mistake and misunderstanding "mmmmm,,,uhhhhh, i thought you wanted ME to get everything on the list for the kids for my house".

*A  Judge once said "there are no coincidences"

We haven't celebrated Christmas with any of DH's kids or family since we hosted in 2010. 

Everyone was invited, including BM1 and her H. 

It was supposed to be potluck, but most of the horde showed up empty handed or with a bag of chips or soda.

We spent a fortune on presents for the nieces, nephews, grandkids and stepgrandkids. Adults had previously drawn names for a gift exchange with a $50 dollar limit. OSD and her H, who had drawn us,  stiffed DH and I. Between them and their brood of six, they ate and drank and received more than anyone else, while contributing the least. I worked my butt off, spent a small fortune, all for what? Something in me snapped.

The following year, we spent Xmas with extended relatives out of state, but by then I'd started my disengagement journey and realized that I had to stop overfunctioning for DH and his people. Now, we spend it at home. We donate to charities, give each other one or two small gifts, and avoid the greed and entitlement.

Exjulie---That disgusts me about 'free loaders"...

  I have a 1st cousin who is married. I will call them the waisthuggers... "for real" they put their arms around each other (around hips)  where ever they go, even IF Your standing talking with them they do it...you would think they are 60 something Siamese twins. They have 3 grown sons. All 3  Are married with a few kids in elementary school... They free load everywhere.

Its not that they are broke.

IF my Cousin and his wife names are the only ones on an invitation/or invite by telephone the 12 show up. 

They are of course are ones who mail out the dreaded Christmas LETTER Singed Jesus is the reason for the season".   All the while they are mooching everywhere with 12 people in tow.

My family doesn't invite them anymore. It's ridiculous.

Last time I saw my cousin was at a funeral and of course all 12 showed up for the food.

Oh, the best time of the year - only when it's crazy in law and skid free. 

I would just stick to my plan about hosting Christmas at your house and if they never respond, that's great. So, you won't have to deal with them. That's a good point, if you have it at your house you can at least be at peace there and decide when everyone needs to go home.