'I hate the hype around Christmas...all the adverts are families in a house together, all happy, and that's not what a family is these days'
Sarah - also not her real name - is estranged from her family after having a traumatic Christmas last year when she brought her boyfriend home to meet her parents.
"There were small things happening - so small you can't pin them down - which made it clear he wasn't wanted.""They said things about who did and didn't fit into our family, which revealed views that were significantly more conservative than I'd ever known them to hold. "But I realised that for me those differences were so great that it started to feel like playing nice was not acceptable any more.
Sarah has now moved abroad. Families she knows in the UK have invited her to their Christmases this year, but she's staying abroad and seeing friends for"a more equal dynamic of people spending the day together. Rather than something that kind of reminds you of the fact that you're not with your own family."He went into full-time care at 15 after his mum struggled to deal with his health issues - he has autism and struggled to walk when he was young.
"We had a proper nice meal, and did Christmas crackers - the ones you pull - I'd never done one of them before!"
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