Christmas in my (28m) family is a big deal. My parents’ holiday parties are pretty extravagant and beyond family, only a select few get invites. This includes close friends and neighbors.
My siblings and I can make suggestions but it’s our parents’ party at the end of the day, which means their decisions are final. My parents also happen to be notoriously hard to impress.
A few of my friends have made the invite list for the party before, but slowly as I’ve gotten older and lost touch with people, that list has dwindled down to just my longtime best friend and former roommate, Jordan (32m).
We grew up in the same neighborhood and he even worked at my dad’s company for the majority of his 20s. While he’s my friend first and foremost, he’s clearly also a friend of the family. My parents love him and have since we met when I was 15 and he was 19.