These Christmas photos prove that the holidays don’t always go according to the Hallmark script. Sometimes Santa shows up looking like he crawled out of a basement instead of the North Pole. Sometimes the kids take one look at him and produce a scream that could shatter ornaments. And sometimes (because the universe likes a good joke) Santa ends up in situations that require an officer, a clipboard, and a very patient explanation.

Every family has at least one photo from the “What happened here?” category. The tree is rare, the costumes are questionable, and someone in the background looks one second away from giving up on the whole season.

Click through and enjoy the strange, the chaotic, and the absolutely unforgettable moments when Christmas took a hard left turn and nobody stepped in to stop it.