social anxiety sucks…

I'm the same as you. Hopefully there will be someone there you know and can talk to. If not, pretend to be enjoying yourself and leave as early as you can without appearing rude.

I go through this also. But every single time i go through with it anyway because i dont want fear to win. And 100% of the time, i mean every single one i always say to myself "im glad that i did this it was fun". I used to dread the Christmas party at my last job and it was mandatory if it fell on a day that you were scheduled to work so i couldn't call out or just not go. Because it was during the middle of the day on a day that i always worked. Every year i dread it and every year i had fun anyway. It was so bad my anxiety that i told people not to even mention the party in front of me. Because i would feel panicked.

Best of luck engaging in fake conversations and pretending to take an interest in the kids' hobbies, toys, and so on.

Perhaps you should have made an excuse when you were invited and said you had a prior engagement?

I’m an introvert and sometimes am uncomfortable around large crowds. Try to go am enjoy yourself

I hate crowds as well, it's so stressful to be honest facing people

I just wont go lol