Woman Explained Why She Chose To Cancel Both Thanksgiving And Christmas After Her Husband And His Family Voted For Trump

An American family found their usual holiday traditions suddenly upended after a woman came across her husband’s post about Donald Trump while she was scrolling through social media late at night. She had been caught up in a long stretch of doomscrolling, and the post struck her harder than she expected.

Across the country, many families have faced this same kind of strain, where deep political differences have pushed people apart. Both liberals and conservatives often feel certain the other side wants to dismantle what the Founding Fathers had hoped to build, which has made conversations at home more tense than ever.

In this case, one woman’s reaction to the heartbreak and fear she felt after Trump defeated Kamala Harris became a clear example of how wide this divide has grown. Her personal story mirrors a conflict that many people continue to face within their own families.

Writer Andrea Tate shared her experience in HuffPost last year, explaining how she made the choice to keep her husband and his family away from both Christmas and Thanksgiving once Trump won the election in November.

"He won, and, from where I stand, America lost," she lamented.

Andrea explained that the morning after the November 5 election left her feeling unable to even get out of bed. She stayed under the covers while scrolling through endless posts online, unfriending people on Facebook who had not supported the Democratic candidate as she tried to cope with the result.

The past decade has seen political differences turn into a sharp divide Alessandro Bremec/NurPhoto via Getty Image

Eventually, she reached a moment that pushed her over the edge when she saw her husband celebrating Trump’s second win with a post that read: "God Bless America. God bless #45, 47."

Her anger and sadness were overwhelming, and she described how even facing her husband felt impossible. Instead of speaking to him, she sent him a text asking him to remove the post “out of respect for me and all my liberal writer friends.”

Knowing the holidays were coming up fast, she continued her message by adding: "Also, tell your family I love them, but I will not be coming for Thanksgiving, and I won't be hosting Christmas. I need space."

Later in the day, her husband attempted to ease the tension by bringing her a cup of coffee and letting her know that he understood her feelings. That small gesture gave her enough space to finally speak with him, even though the situation still felt heavy.

"I am sorry about the holidays, but I cannot bite my tongue like I did with Hillary," she told her husband. "I don't want to disrespect your parents or your brother and his family in their home, or our home, so it's best this way."

"No scenes. You can go see them. Seriously - I will not be in a room of 15 people who voted for Trump."

Andrea could not face her Trump-voting relatives after the election Al Drago-Pool/Getty Images

Although her choice may seem intense at first glance, Andrea explained that she viewed the gap between herself and her Trump-voting relatives as a major moral divide that she could not ignore.

"I will not unwrap gifts given to me by people who voted for a party that has talked about building internment camps and mass deportation," she wrote.

She further defended her decision by saying she refused to “pass the turkey” to relatives whom she believed supported removing women’s reproductive rights and harming vulnerable communities. To her, sharing the table under those circumstances felt impossible.

Her husband did not try to argue with her about any of the changes to their holiday plans, and he also chose not to take the post down, leaving the household to sit with the tension that followed.