There's a lot that goes into hosting a large holiday dinner for friends and family: plenty of stress, tons of preparation, and most of all, a ridiculous amount of money. While the majority of hosts just grin and bear the entire ordeal for the sake of holiday cheer, some of them are completely fed up. One mom definitely shook the table when she revealed that she's now charging her guests $40 each for Christmas dinner.
Gemma Andrews is a mother of four — soon to be five — and, like many moms, she tends to be the go-to host when it comes to big holiday dinners. The woman recently stirred up a little controversy on the popular British television show This Morning when she revealed that she would be charging her guests £30 — around $40 — to attend her Christmas dinner.
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Gemma shared that she's been hosting Christmas dinner in her home for around 10 years and always has at least 16 people attending. The mother also said she will only charge adults and not the "four, five, or six children" that are in attendance in addition to her own.
Embedded content: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CVwfiftVA04
Her decision to begin charging her gusts was brought on by the amount of money she was spending to prepare for the holiday. She said she tried many times to keep the price down by asking people to bring a dish and even charging smaller amounts of money per head (around $10) — neither of which worked.
She also shared that she had no other option but to host dinner in her home because one of her sons has severe food allergies. "I have to control the cooking," she said. "He has so many allergies that I wouldn't trust anybody else."
Surprisingly, Gemma said that her guests are actually okay with her charging an attendance fee. People online who became privy to her story, however, had other ideas. They completely lambasted the mom for "spoiling" the Christmas spirit by bringing money into the equation.
Despite the haters, there were also plenty of people who agreed that Gemma has every right to charge for something as expensive and time-consuming as a Christmas dinner for 16+ people.
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Gemma certainly stirred up plenty of controversy, but while many see her request for money as a greedy grab for cash, others are taking into account the special circumstances she finds herself under. Honestly, she may have given us a little bit to think about.
