Holiday travel or not: how do you decide?

[deborah_r]

Part of me wants to travel so we can be with family for Christmas. Part of me gets sad thinking about not having Christmas morning in our own living room with our own tree. We have no family nearby at all. Most of DH's family will be together 1000 miles from here. Decisions, decisions.

[SnuggleBuggles]

There are pros for both of them. Any way you could leave the day after Christmas and stay through the new year so you could have holiday time with family but the calm of being in your own house Christmas morning?

Beth

[codex57]

I'd consider traveling the day of Christmas. Like have Christmas morning at your house, then leave for the airport later that day. Flights tend to be a lot cheaper and more available on the day of the holiday.

[niccig]

How often do you travel at the holidays? We travel ALL the time and I am DONE. This year it is MIL, and next year it is my mother's turn, and then we are staying in OUR house for at least a few years in a row, and then maybe then I will *think* about traveling. For me, it's the lack of OUR family traditions that makes me not want to travel at Christmas. I'm already getting grumblings from family about us not joining them in 2011, and they can seriously bite me.


I would try to come up with a stay home mostly and then travel some times.

[deborah_r]

We didn't travel last year. We also would not be flying, as DH does not do flying. I would like to take the train if we go, but DH grumbles about taking the shuttle to the train station, putting carseats in and out of shuttle, carrying carseats on and off the train, etc. And it isn't cheap of course (we'd need a sleeper).

[hillview]

We won't be traveling for Christmas anytime soon. I don't mind travel at all I just like Christmas at my house. People are welcome to come here :)

Part of it is that MIL has no place for us to stay (we'd be in a hotel) and my sister also doesn't have a place for us. Last year we did travel and I was disappointed not to be in my own home.

My parents live downstairs and I have told them they should feel no obligation to stay her -- go visit my sister (it is just the 2 of us) if they want to.
/hillary

[niccig]

We didn't travel last year. We also would not be flying, as DH does not do flying. I would like to take the train if we go, but DH grumbles about taking the shuttle to the train station, putting carseats in and out of shuttle, carrying carseats on and off the train, etc. And it isn't cheap of course (we'd need a sleeper).


If I was you, I would stay home this year. Traveling at the holidays is a lot of work, as well as being away from home and having the kids out of their routine. Next year, your youngest will be 3.5 yo and that's when travel started to get easier for us. The years between 1yo-3yo were horrendous for traveling and staying with family. Very stressful and difficult for DH and I. If you decide to go next year, then you have this year to save - so DH can't grumble, and you have time to prepare to go etc. But I am feeling rushed about leaving in 18 days...eek...18 days and I still need to finish shopping....

[inmypjs]

We have traveled every year since we have been married - 10+ years. We alternate spending Christmas Eve and Christmas Day with my parents/family or DH's parents/family. Last year it really became clear that it was too much. The kids were tired and cranky. My Dad actually made it easier by saying that it was about time we stayed at our own house for the holidays. So that's what we are doing. This year we're spending the 24th and 25th at our house, then going to my parents for a few days after that. On years that it was supposed to be with the ILs, we're planning to go to their house for the afternoon of Christmas Day, since they don't live too far.

[Seitvonzu]

last year was our daughter's first birthday (and second christmas, she was born on dec 23rd), so we had a big party and invited our families knowing that most of them couldn't come. last year was all about the birthday. both sets of grandparents were there, and friends. christmas was sorta an afterthought, but still very nice with my parents still here visiting.

this year it's my brother's "turn" to have the grandparents (my parents), so we all decided to go to their house for christmas instead-- this way the three cousins who see each other very infrequently (my brother's family is in texas and we're in maryland), get to spend a holiday together. the kids are still pretty little-- my nephew turns 4 in january, my neice turns 2 at the end of february and lucy will be two and two days on christmas. the girls are easy-- just getting into the holiday and santa and all that, but not super hard to fool yet ;) my nephew is a little harder, but that's my brother's problem! :)

we choose to travel this year because it's the last year we imagine it being "easy" to do. i'm getting a few gifts and actually plan on leaving most of it at my mom's house. if we want lu to have something bigger, we'll give it to her from us (not santa) when we get home (i have a baby buggy i might give her but i'm not shipping it back and forth). we've spent lots of holidays by ourselves because my parents live in IL and my husband's live 5-8 hours (depending on traffic) away in connecticut. it can feel lonely, but we usually really enjoy our little family celebrations!

[WatchingThemGrow]

Always a hard decision. We're a huuuuge liability (see siggie) so if anyone invites us into their home *naive mistake* we'll try our best to go. We figure they'll want to come to our place when we get a bigger house and when our DC are in the "we want to be home" phase. Right now, they don't care, so it is our decision.

Two kind relative families have invited us to visit them this month. We have past packing lists on google docs, so we'll just tweak those and hit the road in our minivan.

[Gena]

DH and I are originally from different states, so we have always lived either near my family or near his family. Before DS was born we would usually do Christmas Eve with one family and then drive all night to do Christmas morning with the other. (There was the one year we got caught in a terrible snowstorm and ended up doing our own Christmas morning in a hotel with a bunch of other stranded travellers, but that's a whole other story.)

After DS was born, DH was strongly against traveling on Christmas Eve/Christmas Day. He wanted DS to have Christmas morning in our home, under our tree. So we would travel on dec 26th to see the out of state family and stay for several days. But I grew up with a lot of happy memories of having Christmas morning in different places: my Grandmother's house, hotels, our cottage up north. So I didn't feel to need to do Christmas morning at our home every year.

Last year I really wanted to do Christmas Eve/Day in Michigan with my family. So I convinced Dh that we would be able to make Christmas morning special at the hotel. (My parents have a very small condo, so we stay at a nearby hotel when we visit). We packed our presents for DS and each other, our stockings, and some decorations. After DS had gone to sleep on Christmas Eve, we set up a small pre-lit tree and put the presents under it. I used capturethemagic.com (http://capturethemagic.com/) to "take" these pictures of Santa visiting DS at the hotel:

http://i662.photobucket.com/albums/uu350/lollybrat/Santaatthehotel1-1-2.jpg


http://i662.photobucket.com/albums/uu350/lollybrat/Santaatthehotel2-1-1.jpg


That's DS sleeping in the bed. He was amazed to see that Santa found him at the hotel. There was a ton of snow there (which is why Santa added the sled as a last-minute gift) and we took DS sledding Christmas morning before going to see my parents. It was a very special Christmas and DH was really amazed at with how everything worked out.

[egoldber]

Well, if I didn't travel at Christmas, I would never see my mother. She is not well and does not have the money or means to travel to us. So it is what it is. For a few years we have stayed home for Christmas Day and traveled after that, which I actually prefer, but now that I am working that is not really an option anymore.

My trade off Thanksgiving with my SILs (3 hour drive). This works well. My MIL and FIL are well enough and have enough money to be able to travel easily, whereas we all have small kids and/or limited budgets.

[srkaplan]

I used capturethemagic.com (http://capturethemagic.com/) to "take" these pictures of Santa visiting DS at the hotel

That is soooooo cool! I've never seen that before- what a great idea! I can only imagine how kids react to that!

[WatchingThemGrow]

Oh, our travels are less than 6 hours. I would not want to fly with 3 DC before and after the holidays. However, like codex said, traveling ON the actual day isn't all bad. As a single adult going to see different parents (like I always did as a child), my quietest, most memorable (and a little bit sad) days were being on a plane ON Christmas day. There's hardly any traffic at that point and everyone's happy.