Woman Says Husband’s Friend Is 1 Comment Away from Losing His Thanksgiving Invite After Years of Ruining Holidays

A woman is asking for outside perspective after a string of awkward holiday get-togethers with her husband’s friend left her dreading future dinners.

In a post on Reddit, she said her husband wants to invite his friend Craig to Thanksgiving again, even though previous visits went badly.

She described the first year they hosted Craig for Thanksgiving as the start of the problem. Craig asked to wash his hands, but instead of going to the bathroom, he walked into the kitchen and criticized the mess in the sink. She said the comment stung, especially because she had just cooked a full holiday meal. Her husband dismissed it at the time as a joke, but she couldn’t shake the feeling.

By Easter, she was already uneasy about having Craig over again. When her husband invited him, Craig offered to bring a pie. She had already planned dessert and didn’t want extra sweets around because she and her husband were trying to lose weight. She joked that he should bring King Hawaiian Sweet Rolls if he wanted to come, so Craig agreed to bring rolls instead.

But on the day of the dinner, Craig didn’t show up on time. She said she told him dinner would be at 5 p.m., yet he still hadn’t arrived by 5:30, so they ate without him. He finally showed up around 7 p.m. with his girlfriend.

She said the rolls weren’t the brand she’d joked about, but by that point she didn’t care. What upset her more was that Craig brought the pie anyway — the one she’d asked him not to bring.

Soon after arriving, she said Craig again made a dig about the dishes in her sink, repeating the complaint from Thanksgiving. Then he compared her cooking unfavorably to his girlfriend’s, saying her food wasn’t nearly as good — something she felt was especially unfair given that the meal had gone cold due to his late arrival.

When he was leaving, she told him to take the pie back with him since dessert was already done. Craig refused, saying he didn’t like sweets and that they could keep it. She said that left her feeling irritated and disrespected after an already tense evening.

Now that Thanksgiving is coming up again, her husband proposed inviting Craig once more. She agreed only reluctantly, telling her husband that she wouldn’t tolerate another round of rude behavior. She said she planned to ask Craig to leave the moment he made a condescending remark, and she was determined not to be stuck with another unwanted pie.

Her husband told her she was overreacting and misreading Craig’s intentions, so she turned to Reddit to ask whether she was wrong for setting firm boundaries.

Commenters largely sided with her — but many said the bigger issue wasn’t Craig, it was her husband’s willingness to excuse his friend’s behavior. Several pointed out that Craig had repeatedly criticized her home, showed up hours late, ignored her requests, and insulted her cooking, yet her husband still wanted to host him. Others urged her to stand her ground and told her her husband should be prioritizing her comfort in their home.