I hate spending Christmas with my right-wing family

The Indy's agony aunt Victoria Richards is here to help

- Victoria Richards

Dear Vix, I'm feeling incredibly anxious and stressed about Christmas — and there are still two weeks to go! The reason I’m worried is because I have to spend it with my family - my mum, dad and sisters (plus our partners and children) — and we just don’t get on. We never have.

For one thing, my family are completely different to me. We have completely different political outlooks - they call me “woke” and I find their constant “casual” racism offensive and outdated. They say they're just “jokes” and accuse me of being a “snowflake” and of not having a sense of humour, but I just don't find it funny to punch down.

I'm dreading the kind of conversations that are bound to come up around the Christmas dinner table: about them being pro-Trump and pro-Israel and the war in Gaza, not to mention the migrant crisis. I’m pretty sure they support Reform UK and think Nigel Farage is some great saviour of the right.

It’s more than disappointing - I find it deeply depressing, to be honest. It makes me despair that I’m even related to people with narrow-minded views like that. I’m really not looking forward to spending time with them. How do I get through it without wanting to throw my plate?

Dreading It

Dear Dreading It,