Video Sparks Debate On Whether Moms Should ‘Speak Up’ About Christmas Gift Expectations
A TikTok video is going viral for showing a mother not receive any presents in her Christmas stocking. While the video, posted by TikTok mom influencer @whataboutaub, is meant to be humorous— people are reacting fiercely to it. As creator @gabzilla.rawr recently posted on her own account in response to the video: “[Moms] created the Christmas magic for everyone but no one bothered to think of them.”
As @gabzilla.rawr put it, “The video is either going to make you cry, or make you angry, or both.”
“I don’t know how this is becoming a holiday trend of moms not waking up to their Christmas stockings being stuffed,” she continued. “[Meaning] that they have not received any gift from their spouse for the holidays.” Meanwhile, as the viral video in question shows, everyone else receives Christmas gifts in their holiday stockings, including all the children and the husband.
As one X user recently described, this situation makes them “so sad.” They wrote, “Mothers put out so much energy into the world only to receive so little thanks in return.”
And while many people are reacting quite negatively to the video, others aren’t so angry about it. As one mother responded, “Women are so livid. But ladies, if you want something in your stocking, if that’s something that is important to you, speak up. I’m sorry.”
Yes, the debate is getting spicy. Here’s everything to know!
TikTok users are reacting fiercely to the viral video, writing, “Even the dog has one filled… Poor mama”
TikTok influencer Aubree Jones posted the infamous video last month, which seems to have been filmed last year on Christmas day. The clip shows all her children excitedly opening their presents, and finding gifts in their stockings. Meanwhile, Jones’ husband films her, points to her empty stocking, and asks: “Whose is this? Is this an extra one?”
“No, that’s mine,” the mother responds. Her husband then (somewhat cluelessly!) asks her, “Why is it empty?”
“I don’t know. Santa didn’t come for me,” she replies with a laugh. Jones later captioned the video, “It took [my husband] 10 years to notice it’s been empty this whole time,” calling it a “PSA for husbands everywhere.”
Although the Jones family probably didn’t expect people to respond to their video with fury— it sure caused that reaction. At nearly 12 million views, users swiftly posted comments like, “She laughs. But I knew inside it hurt” and “All of us women felt that in our stomach. That hurt.”
As another commenter described, “The moms create Christmas magic for everyone, including the dog but are forgotten every single year.” Yet another noted, “Even the dog has one filled… Poor mama.” Many more echoed a user who wrote, “This is a good example that mom does all the stuff and nobody notices.”
The debate even made itself over to X, where one user wrote, “This is your PSA to fill your moms Christmas stocking if you’re able to.”
And while tons of people flooded Jones’ comments section with angry responses, she later posted a follow-up video seemingly excusing her husband. “Everyone is more upset with my husband than I am. It’s nice to have a stocking, but I wasn’t bothered by it,” she explained. “That’s why I laughed when he pointed it out.”
“This was supposed to be a call out to other men who might not realize their wife doesn’t have a stocking,” she added. “He forgot to fill my stocking, but definitely remembered to make me feel loved and special through gifts and many other things. Everyone can relax.”
Okay, then! Still, as you can expect, people continue to react to the video— even if the mom in question doesn’t seem too bothered by her empty stocking.
One TikTok user posted a stitch response to the video, noting how situations like these set worrying precedents for future generations. “This teaches young girls that that’s actually going to be them when they get older. That no one is going to lookout for mom on Christmas,” the user noted.
“Ladies, we have to set the example for our daughters that on days like Christmas, moms very much should be shopped for,” they added. “We have to change this narrative.” Hear, hear!
Meanwhile, another TikTok user went equally-viral for his response to the video, where he noted: “Just found out my mother fills her own stocking on Christmas Eve.”
“I believed in my father,” he explained. “For the longest time I thought my dad could care enough to do that simple thing for her. But he can’t. She does it all on her own.” Ouch.
As TikTok user @lifecoachshawn responded to that response (yes, this is the “Inception” of TikTok debates), “For some reason a woman’s labor is always invisible. And it’s sad that we feel the need to give some of these men credit for being better fathers than they are, and that they want to be.”
“Why is it that you can’t even think about her on that day?” the user questioned. “The reason why the moms are filling their own stockings is because they’ve always filled their own cup.”
That part!
Over on X, many people are responding similarly to the video. As one user posted from their own experience: “My dad never filled my mom’s Christmas stocking and I promised myself I’d never be in a relationship like that when I was a kid.”
However, not everyone is so angry about the video, with some saying that moms should “speak up”
Interestingly enough, a whole other wave of TikTok users aren’t necessarily angry about the viral video at all. In fact, one person posted a response video saying that this is only an issue if it’s “important to you.”
“If this is something that bothers you, I would recommend communicating that this is important to you, and that you’d really like if he puts efforts into filling your stocking.”
“But don’t feel obligated to make it a thing if it’s not a thing that you genuinely care about,” they advised. For example, the user explained that they “personally don’t care about” that issue.
“I think it becomes a problem after you’ve communicated something is important to you,” they added. “And they decide that they’re not going to make efforts.”
Meanwhile, others are making light of the situation with slightly-hilarious meme videos like these— very relatable:
Still, one TikTok user fired a few shots with her own video on the subject, explaining “why you shouldn’t get mad at your husband for not putting anything in your Christmas stocking.”
“Ladies, if you want something in your stocking, if that’s something that is important to you, speak up,” she said. “I’m sorry, I think it’s ridiculous.”
“I used to get really upset if I had to ask my husband to love me and my love language,” she revealed. “But that love language is foreign to him. And communication is key.”
Other TikTokers? Well, they’re very happy getting their own mom-approved stocking stuffers. One user explained in a video, “This may be an unpopular opinion but I love stuffing my own stockings.”
“It’s one of my favorite things to do.” Whatever floats your boat!
Yet another user responded to the viral video, explaining her own unique perspective: “I never cared about how many presents are under the tree for me.”
“If my kids ask me ‘Mommy, why is there nothing in your stocking?'” she hilariously imagined. “I’m [going to say], ‘Well, Santa said it had something to do with cutting someone [off] while driving.”
Us? Well, you can catch us stuffing our mom’s Christmas stockings with fun makeup and skincare:
Maybe even some candy, too, because why not?
Did TikTok just help dads around the world realize what they probably should’ve done all along?
