A woman from London plans on charging her family members to attend her Christmas dinner this year.
Primary school teacher and mum-of-two Leah Wright is asking couples to contribute £50 towards her festive lunch.
This isn't the first time she's asked her family to cough up either, as she and her partner Andrew have done the same thing for the past two years.
Advert
Reasoning their decision, Leah explained that they used to ask everyone to bring something along, like a bottle of wine, but it wasn't consistent as there wouldn't be a full spread or the right amount of booze.
"So I decided that when we were hosting, we would ask everyone to split the cost," Leah told The Sun.
Advert
After Leah and Andrew purchased all the food and drink, they calculated the cost per person for their 18 guests.
Recalling the moment she revealed their plans to their family, Leah confessed: "It wasn't initially great news for everybody and didn't go down well with some.
"My partner's family made comments like, 'What's the point of inviting people if you're going to charge them?'
"But the reason behind it was the fact that we'd just had a baby, I was on maternity leave, and the only reason we chose to host Christmas was because we felt we had the biggest amount of space and it was important to us to have both his and my family in the same space."
Advert
She added that they felt obliged to be the hosts, but didn't want to take on the full cost of dinner.
The food for Christmas day was all sourced from a quality butchers, and the family requested what they wanted to eat, with them having a lavish spread of turkey, duck, gammon and pork.
"Afterwards they did take the mick out of us for having the audacity to send a bill! But it was never mentioned again - though maybe it still is an elephant in the room!" the mum-of-two added.
Advert
But despite her niggling doubts, Leah said that she wouldn't shy away from charging her family for Christmas dinner again.
Leah continued: "I do wonder, if somebody else asked me for £50 to come for dinner, I would stop in my tracks, if I'm honest. But I think because my family were so good about it, it didn't make me feel bad."
She went on to say that Christmas was an expensive time of the year, and the extra cost of hosting dinner didn't seem 'fair' in her eyes.
"I don't think it's embarrassing to ask to split it so that you are able to host - I think you just need the guts to ask!"
Topics: Christmas, Real, Food And Drink