I have often thought like this. Sometimes it isnt always the case.
This time last year my father-in-law was full of life and healthy. In September he passed away.
Sometimes there aren't other christmas'. I guess you just have to decide what is more important to you.
oh granted (my father died suddenly too, any moment with your loved ones is precious: it isn't christmas i remember most fondly, there were too many other brilliant days)- but if it is anyone's last christmas, i'll still be there for that.
I'll sit at the table and i'll join in the conversation and later i'll play charades or whatever. my dieting at christmas will spoil it for no one, because there's so much more to christmas with family than one meal. Of course my family is important, but not eating with them won't make their or my experience of christmas any less special. If my lovely dad was still alive, he wouldn't have given a fig whether I was eating turkey or not, so long as I was there and happy. and nor would I.
you know, i don't think that anyone putting their diet on hold over christmas is wrong. not at all. i wish i had the strength of will to be able to put my diet away and pick it up again afterwards. but i don't. and i need to get to goal as quickly as possible because I have 25 months from next week until i'll be too old for IVF. And given that no one knows how long i'll be on the waiting list, I need to lose the required weight as soon as possible. I can't afford to come off the wagon, put on weight, and potentially have to wait until i find the right headspace to diet successfully again.
As you said, "sometimes you have to decide what is more important to you" - and balancing my chance of ever having a baby against eating the same food as my relatives at christmas. Well actually, the motherhood thing wins hands down, and i'm sure my relatives agree with me.