Celebrating Christmas when away from home.
This year we are doing something different we are packing up our four children and celebrating Christmas on holiday. It’s nice to get away from the normality of life and go on an Adventure. With less stuff about there is less to clean, and your days can be spent exploring, relaxing and making the most of our wonderful world.
Our time is going to be spent in Queensland before we embark on our Disney trip. Heading to both Los Angeles and Florida. so make sure you keep an eye on our youtube channel as we will be posting lots of great videos over the next six weeks.
Christmas is a great time to get away, however, when traveling at Christmas time there is a little bit of extra planning to do.
10 Tips to celebrate Christmas on holidays
1 – Organise a house sitter.
For us, this was the most important but also the easiest one as we had a family member that also wanted to get away for the holidays so is happily looking after our pets and our house. Means you have an extra level of comfort that all will still be ok when you get back. Also means that you don’t have to worry about your pets feeling left out this Christmas season.
2 – Food.
Work out what you are going to eat on Christmas Day. If Christmas is normally filled with lots of food, celebration then staying away at Christmas can be a little strange but don’t despair. Find yourself your favorite restaurant in the area and prebook early a table for lunch or dinner. Make sure though you still head to the shops and by the essentials. Make sure you search out your favorite Christmas treats. If it’s not Christmas without your Rocky Road, then go buy the ingredients and make yourself one anyway.
3 – Presents.
- For Others – Make sure that you have all your presents, not only wrapped and purchased before you leave but with ample time to actually drop off. There is nothing worse than going to all the effort to purchase a lovely present for someone and realising that it is still sitting under the tree at home.
- Your own presents – When traveling space becomes a problem, and with four children making sure they not only get what they want but it is still manageable to get the presents home in your luggage is a real issue you need to think of. One way we get around it is by purchasing experiences for your family. Instead of huge lego sets, maybe you could buy a family pass to a local wildlife park or the zoo.
4 – Explore the local holiday decorations.
Make sure you go take a walk and see what the local place has to offer this Christmas. If you are visiting Melbourne for Christmas their is always the iconic Myer windows or ArtVo instillation in Crown. Take a drive around and see the Magical Christmas lights. Ballarat has a great iconic art trail this year. Maybe you are heading over to New York and can experience a White Christmas. make the most of it. Maybe you are in Sydney and can experience the Fireworks on New Year’s Eve. We have been twice and they really are breathtaking.
5 – Facetime.
The hardest thing about being away from Christmas is not seeing your loved ones, so make sure you have internet available and Facetime with those nearest and dearest to you. Then everyone can still be involved in the magic of seeing the presents being unwrapped.
6 – Decorations.
One of the most magical things about Christmas is decorating the Christmas tree, and even though we were leaving two weeks before Christmas we made sure we decorated our tree at home. We continue this by purchasing a cheap tree from K-mart and having it set up in our hotel room, that way the children can still wake up on Christmas morning and sit under the tree and open their presents.
7 – Christmas Music
We love music in our house especially Christmas music, so I make sure that we continue to play our Christmas music on holidays. We can’t miss out on our Mariah Carey, Human Nature Christmas playlist.
8. Find a way to continue some Christmas traditions.
No matter where we are our children loves to watch both the Carols in the domain and Carls by candlelight. Many a days traveling has been cut short to make sure we are at our hotel or caravan park in time to sit and sing along to the Christmas carols. Now thanks to catch up tv, we get to relive the magic of the carols for days afterward as well.
9. Create some new ones
If you are away for Christmas there will be some traditions that you might find hard to continue. Maybe it was a big roast dinner, however, the hotel you are staying at doesn’t have an oven. Maybe you always went to your local carols. Instead, create a new one, maybe buy a Christmas ornament from the town you are staying in, so you will forever have the memory of where you were?
10. Relax.
Christmas will be different if you aren’t at home, and that is not necessarily a bad thing. Create new traditions, enjoy the fact you won’t be running from one event to the next.
Have you ever been away at Christmas time before? How did you cope?
What are your plans for Christmas?
About The Author
These are great tips! I actually just did a post about how to celebrate Xmas away from home as an expat. Have a great trip and Merry Xmas!! 🙂