It looks like a fun night, the kind of boozy, friend-filled celebrations that start popping up around now and snowball in the lead up to Christmas and the New Year. That’s what the holidays are for, aren’t they? Evenings like this one, so full of good cheer they could levitate, the kind where there’s never an awkward lull in the conversation and you leave with your cheeks aching from laughing so much.

Not if you’re Jennifer Aniston, apparently. When the images of Aniston’s celebrations with her friends hit the internet they were met with what has become a typical, though nonetheless deeply disappointing response from the internet.

First came the usual responses of ‘hope Jen and Justin get back together one day’, because a single woman in possession of a friendly relationship with her ex must be in want of a reconciliation. Then there were the snide remarks about how Aniston couldn’t possibly have done all the preparation for the party herself. (“I hope the help were able to get off early to celebrate their own Thanksgiving with their families. No one is buying she did this all herself.”)

And then, with all the certainty of a clanging bell, came the usual tirade of ‘poor, lonely Jen’ comments. “Holidays must be a sad state of affairs for liberal celebrities like her, no husband or boyfriend, no children, and obviousely [sic] not on good terms with relatives probably due to political differences,” one commenter wrote. Another added: “Can’t keep a partner for whatever reason but has good friends.” And then there was this charming comment: “childless group of self centred narcissists”.

Jennifer Aniston and Justin Theroux: why are we shaming the star for spending Thanksgiving with her friends?