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Post by Merge on Jul 22, 2017 14:37:25 GMT
1. We have a fairly small extended family, all living far away. Getting together for holidays doesn't always work out. We can afford and manage to travel to them, but the reverse isn't always true. DH's parents traveled around a lot and my folks are gone, so there isn't any "going home for Christmas" like many people have. We do make an effort to include MIL in whatever we're doing if she isn't spending the day with BIL/SIL (which happens when they spend Christmas with SIL's family).
2. To combat the expectation of "things." None of us needs anything and we want very little. We don't need more clutter in our house; our kids don't need more crap. When I was growing up, it was different - money was very tight and we often got things for Christmas that we really needed (in addition to a few wants). We generally didn't get new toys at any other time except a birthday. This hasn't been true for my kids for several years now (though it was when they were younger). So I don't feel like we need to pile on more "things" at this point just because of a date on the calendar.
3. Have you tried shopping for teens? Picky teen girls? Planning a trip is much easier.
4. I'm a teacher and both girls are in high school, with a full schedule of challenging classes. There are very few opportunities for us to travel during the school year, so we like to take advantage of the ones we do have. And we don't always go far - last year we spent part of Christmas break in San Antonio and Austin (we live in Houston). Not an expensive trip at all. On the list of possibilities for this Christmas is a hiking trip to Big Bend National Park in far west Texas. Again, cheap.
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Post by jamiebohbamie on Jul 22, 2017 15:03:44 GMT
I'm Jewish, my husband is a Christian. When I was growing up my family often did ski trips or such over Christmas because we weren't celebrating anyway. When I started dating DH I stuck around for Christmas to be with his family but then two years ago we had an amazing opportunity. We had been wanting to go to Israel for a while and my temple was running a ten day trip and it was over the holiday. My husband didn't hesitate to miss Christmas. We did wake up at 4am to video chat his family super quick and we made sure to seek out a tree in Tel Aviv, but mostly we ignored the holiday. Now that he isn't speaking with his family, I've tried to host the best Jewish Christmas I can, but he doesn't seem to be interested. I can see us traveling this year.
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Post by epeanymous on Jul 22, 2017 15:11:55 GMT
Because we're Jews.
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Post by gmcwife1 on Jul 22, 2017 17:29:28 GMT
I love listening to other holiday traditions and especially the whys and how they started!
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PaperAngel
Prolific Pea
Posts: 7,920
Jun 27, 2014 23:04:06 GMT
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Post by PaperAngel on Jul 22, 2017 18:18:15 GMT
Our family of three, including a teen, have vacationed during the holidays for almost a decade & plan to continue the tradition. We decorate our home for the holidays, send/receive cards, attend parties, have a visiting elf, & exchange gifts before or after the trip. We have a small extended family that live 250-800 miles away in snow prone areas.
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Post by bunnyhug on Jul 22, 2017 23:36:15 GMT
When I was a kid, we alternated Christmases at both sets of grandparents houses--one year we were at one for Christmas, the other for New Year's, and then the next year it switched. The only times we were at our house for Christmas morning were the two years that we happened to live in the same town as the grands, and the one year we were supposed to drive on Christmas Eve and it blizzard-ed (I don't think that's a word, although we use it all the time here, lol!), so we went Christmas morning, instead. I was always jealous of my friends who stayed home and had a few lazy days to play with all their new toys--mine had to stay packed up for the most part so that they didn't get left behind or lost or broken at my grandparents' homes. Then, my first year out of high school, I lived in Australia, so it was too far to come home--and I discovered that I really quite like having a warm Christmas! The next several years after I got home, I was back to following my parents between grandparents' houses, and then dh and I did our best to juggle our family commitments and make the rounds of both of our families.
Once our first baby was born, we did spend Christmases alternating between our families, but realized pretty quickly that it kinda sucked to drag everything around, and that all the activity really just made the baby cranky. We moved about 9 hours away from our families when dd was 2.5, drove home for the first Christmas afterwards, and then ds was born and we had the one after at our house with my entire extended family coming out and renting rooms. We moved again, had another baby, and then had a ridiculous 10 day trek over two provinces and three cities, packing and unpacking all the luggage and stupid Santa stuff, and then next year became the first that we absolutely refused to leave home ;P My family came to us, and that was okay. And then, when our kids were 6, 3 and 2, we went to Hawaii for Christmas--it was heavenly! Since then, we've spent some Christmases here in our own home, about half of them in Palm Springs, and the last one back at our parents'. We're headed to PS again this year, and I'm so glad!! I only put up a couple of 'key' decorations at our house in December to enjoy before we leave, we buy a disposable tree at the vacation rental, and I do a simplified Christmas dinner around the pool--I love, love, love that we have some of our own traditions in our own 'little' family, and that we spend a ton of time together on vacation! I also love, love, love that the focus is not all on the food or the gifts! AND, I love, love, love that when we see our families at other times during the year, there is more time and energy to have fun together--without worrying about buying them gifts or rushing off to all of the holiday parties hosted by friends in our hometowns!
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Post by Belia on Jul 23, 2017 0:39:51 GMT
Not Christmas,but we've travelled for Thanksgiving for the past few years instead of spending it with family. It started because a few years ago my parents decided to spend the holiday with my sister who lives out of state. We didn't want to visit DH's family- too far, weird family dynamics, and it was tough for DH to get time off work. I asked some extended family who were staying in town if we (me, DH, my toddler and my infant son) could be with them on Thanksgiving, and we were told no! There wasn't room for us.  I mean, I get it, you don't have to host anyone you don't want to, but the four of us with a new baby who didn't have anywhere else to go and you couldn't squeeze us in? No even for dessert? I was very hurt, and that Thanksgiving sucked. So the next year I decided that I wasn't going to rely on anyone else and my extended family could screw themselves.  I made hotel reservations in downtown Chicago for 4 nights and bought VIP tickets (reserved seating) for the big Thanksgiving Day parade right outside our hotel. We had Thanksgiving dinner at the Walnut Room in Macy's (Marshall Field's) on State Street, which is famous for an enormous Christmas tree. On Black Friday my husband went into work, but this time it was a quick walk across the loop instead of a train ride from our home in the suburbs. Meanwhile, I took the kids to the Chicago Children's Museum at Navy Pier. We went to the Lincoln Park Zoo to look at the lights that night, and swam in the hotel pool and just hung out the rest of the time. IT WAS AWESOME. Of course, it was so much fun that the rest of my family... the same ones who wouldn't make room for us at Thanksgiving the year before... were like, "Oh, what a good idea! Maybe we could come downtown with you and get rooms in the same hotel....." and I was like, HAHAHAHAHAHAHA WHATEVER DUDE. Do whatever you want. We've got plans. Last year we actually did go to my sister's, and it was awful. Especially with the election. All I could think was, "We drove 6 hours for this?" Never again. |
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I made hotel reservations in downtown Chicago for 4 nights and bought VIP tickets (reserved seating) for the big Thanksgiving Day parade right outside our hotel. We had Thanksgiving dinner at the Walnut Room in Macy's (Marshall Field's) on State Street, which is famous for an enormous Christmas tree. On Black Friday my husband went into work, but this time it was a quick walk across the loop instead of a train ride from our home in the suburbs. Meanwhile, I took the kids to the Chicago Children's Museum at Navy Pier. We went to the Lincoln Park Zoo to look at the lights that night, and swam in the hotel pool and just hung out the rest of the time. IT WAS AWESOME.