Title: Teenagers tell their worst Christmas story:
Course: My best and worst Christmas?! (9/10) > Section: 5. Some Christmas catastrophes - Read!

I'm Joe and I come from Australia. My worst Christmas was in 2019. I don't know whether you heard about it, but in 2019 we had a lot of problems with the heat and wildfires Down Under. Many people had to leave their homes and some even died because they were too late!
For my family and me it was the worst Christmas because we had to leave our home on Christmas morning to be safe from the flames. Everything was burnt to the ground. We no longer had a home. Sadly, our neighbour was not that lucky and died like so many others. But in the end we rebuilt our home and we are still alive!

Hi there, my name is Jim and I'm form America. My family moved around the country a lot, but at the moment we are living in New York City (NYC). We really love to celebrate Christmas with the whole family. It’s always a big celebration with lots of food, music and laughter. I have 4 brothers and 2 sisters, and all my relatives nearby join the party.
If I had to choose my worst Christmas, I would say that the Christmas a few years ago was the most awful one. That was the time, when my brother didn't have a job, started seeing the wrong people and started doing illegal things. A day before Christmas the police stood in front of our door and took him with them. He is still in prison for the crimes he committed and can no longer join our merry Christmas parties.

My name is Letitia. I'm 16 years old and was born in South Africa. My hometown is Cape Town. Me and my family have always lived here! I have two older brothers and a younger sister. My favourite sport is surfing and baseball. I know, not very girly, but what do you expect with two older brothers?
My worst Christmas was a while ago, I think I was 9. We went to church to attend the annual service, just like every year. When we got home the worst thing had happened. We had been robbed! A lot of things had been stolen and the house was wrecked. Everything had been decorated so nicely when we left the house. How can anyone do this? We called the police and apparently we were not the only ones that had been mugged. My parents told us that we were lucky that we weren't hurt. Everything else could be replaced, they said.
The day after Christmas my parents called a security company that installed an alarm system in our home. Since then we have been feeling safe!

Hello everybody! My name is Charlotte and I was born in Christchurch, New Zealand. I’ve been living here all my life. I’m 17 years old and I’m heading towards my final exams at the moment and want to study in the future.

My worst Christmas I can still remember very clearly. I was 8 years old. It was the Christmas in 2011. The earthquake that had happened in February that year still affected us greatly. Nearly 200 people had been killed and countless homes had been destroyed. Just like our home. My father had died during the disaster as well and that had been a great loss to my whole family. Luckily, by Christmas that year we had a place to stay, but it still was nothing near to normal and I still miss him!

Hi, my name is Henry, I’m 16 years old and I live in London, Great Britain. I love to play football and hope to be able to become a professional athlete in the future!

My worst Christmas was actually last year. My parents allowed me to stay home while they went to church. That was the worst mistake they could have made! I had to do two jobs. First, I was supposed to watch the turkey we wanted to have for dinner in the oven. And secondly, I was supposed to light the candles on the Christmas tree at 5pm.

Sadly, I forgot the time while playing computer games and it was just after 5pm that I hurried to light all the candles. Unfortunately, the whole tree was suddenly on fire. Luckily, I got the fire out, but by that time our bird was burnt. So in the end we had no turkey for dinner and a black Christmas tree. I should have gone to church with my parents! That’s definitely what I am going to do this year.

all picutres: CC0