A strange topic for this early in the year but I wanted to bring it up far before the holiday season crazies hit.
Last year we took our three kids away for a three week long trip over Christmas and New Years. While we had gone away for Christmas once before, it was when our oldest was two years old. He barely registered that it was a season of traditions and gift giving and was thrilled that Santa brought him a Hot Wheels track with a few cars. No stocking… no gift exchanging…. no Christmas tree. We spent our holidays in Edinburgh exploring, relaxing and visiting extended family that lived nearby. It was a perfect first Christmas living abroad and distracted me from missing my family.
This last trip was a much different beast. Our kids were 10, 7 and 5 and Christmas is a really big deal to them. Or so we thought. We mostly celebrate secular Christmas replete with Santa Claus and a felt Advent Calendar filled with chocolate. The prior Christmas I had seen a heightened excitement from the kids and we no longer had to wake them up Christmas morning. They were jazzed and amped up and often full of big emotion in the two weeks leading up to Christmas. We wondered: what would it be like to just go away for Christmas?
I was also feeling the burden of Christmas. Sure, I love some of the work of Christmas like baking and yes, we keep things simple. But there is still work involved. This last Christmas we were also in flux as I had been working a lot and wanted a real break over the holidays. Skipping all the hullaboo sounded great. But I wondered if the kids would freak out and be really upset at not having a traditional Christmas: gift opening and dinner with their cousins and Aunts and Uncles.
The decision was made when found some amazing flight deals and booked ourselves away for three weeks. The clincher was that on Christmas day the kids wouldn’t be sitting around opening presents but rather, flying to Thailand.
I’m sharing how our kids reacted to being away and traveling over Christmas.
We didn’t even put up a Christmas tree.
This is probably the one that the kids missed the most: we didn’t get a Christmas tree. We put up a few decorations inside, things like holiday art from school, but there was no tree and no Christmas lights on the house. One of the neighbour kids actually admonished me for not having lights up! There were a few moments of sadness from the kids, they really wanted to decorate a tree, but I kept reminding them about our special trip. They would get to see their newborn twin cousins and play on the beach in Thailand. We watched a few You Tube videos about the places we were visiting to get them excited and that helped take their mind off of Christmas.
While the kids were sad with no Christmas tree, I was thrilled. No pine needles to sweep! No tree to take down!
We sort of did Christmas gifts.
Our initial plan was to bring a few small parent gifts on our trip for them to open Christmas day and stockings and Santa gift would be here for their return. However, we realized that the packaging of the gifts was taking up too much room in our limited luggage (we were just traveling with carry on for the three week trip). So two days before we left the kids opened their gifts from mom and dad. It was a great move as the kids really had time to enjoy the gifts and get excited about bringing them on the trip. They were:
- Shashibo magnetic puzzle cube: these were a huge hit on our trip and the kids spent hours making new shapes with them. Perfect size for travel.
- Bakugen toys: our kids love these and they are small but the packaging is big if you are trying to fit three into a carry on.
- Ozibot: the kids have been using these at school and they are good for learning basic programming. We ended up leaving the one we got them (shared gift) at home because I was worried about it getting lost during the trip.
- Percy Jackson books: we got paperbacks (packing splurge!) for my oldest to take on the trip.
When the kids returned from our trip Santa had left their stockings – underwear, socks, candy – and a LEGO set for each of them.
How did the kids do with not celebrating or opening gifts on Christmas day?
Our trip kicked off with three days in San Francisco and while there were certainly lots of Christmas decorations around, the kids barely seemed to notice. They were having too much fun riding cable cars, running down Lombard street and taking a ferry to Sausalito. I’ll admit I had a bad feeling as Christmas Eve approached. Were we about to witness an epic three kid meltdown? Would they refuse to get on a plane until Santa brought them gifts? I was so concerned about keeping the wool over their eyes that I discreetly asked our server at dinner Christmas Eve to not mention that it was indeed Christmas Eve.
Our Christmas morning started at 3am with an Uber to San Francisco airport. The kids were barely awake as we made our way there but the driver had a news radio program blasting and they kept saying it was Christmas day. We made our way to our gate at the airport and still nothing from the kids. They were all pretty sleepy on the flight to Vancouver but still… no one said anything about it being Christmas or asked where their stockings were.
The next hurdle was a two hour layover in Vancouver before our Shanghai bound flight. We headed to a lounge in Vancouver airport for breakfast (thank you travel hacking for getting us lounge passes!) and still… the kids seemed oblivious to the fact that it was December 25th. We boarded our flight around noon and with that, we had somehow skipped right over Christmas as by the time we landed in Shanghai it was the afternoon of December 26th. Our bleary eyed kiddos then made it on to an evening flight to Thailand and from there on out, there wasn’t really any talk of Christmas.
Secular Christmas is a construct.
This is what I learned from going away for Christmas with my kids: secular Christmas is a construct. Sure, most of my kids still believe in Sant Clause. But when they are removed from an environment that is hyping Christmas – trees! baking! gifts! Santa at the mall! Santa everywhere! – they mostly forget about it.
Our trip away over Christmas with kids was so wonderful we’re doing it again this year. We’re taking my mom with us for two weeks in Costa Rica. A trip made possible by travel credit card points hacking. I don’t think we will go away every Christmas but we learned that our kids are pretty content to skip much of Christmas and, instead, travel and get some beach time in.
Would you, or have you ever, skipped Christmas?
I would LOVE to do this. This is the best idea ever and I don’t even have littles to worry about.
It was so relaxing. I know we will likely spend more Christmases at home but the time away with the kids and my husband was gold.
We don’t travel because it taking us time to save up. We are going next year to San Francisco/ Disneyland after saving up $6,000 for 4 years. Next trip will take another 4 years to save for and we want to go to Panama City, Panama. But we do minimalist seasons. There is no family but ourselves of 5, no extended family at all and we don’t have any friends really either. My husband does have work friends if that counts and we know our neighbors enough for once a year bbq and Christmas gift exchange at least. So we told our children early on there was no Santa and kept gifts minimal. One big gift on birthday ($50 or less but yes it’s just one). Christmas you have to give up 2 of your belongings/ toys to receive 4 new ones ($100 budget each child). Since it is Christmas they do receive gift cards with print off for places to go over winter season such as skating rink, movie theater, and Burger King plus gas card that has indoor playground but is bit of travel. Small town in valley not much to do. We do fake tree, non breakable ornaments, string popcorn that will eventually go to the birds on Christmas day, but no lights to save on our sky high electric bill. Kids hang up snowflakes from coffee filters on a string, use same garland every year for outside porch with bows, and tape up school decorations. Birthday is 1 package of balloons, 1 choice of 2 banners, silk ribbons to reuse,1 choice of 2 fancier table cloths, juice which is rarity here, and pick the meal with choice of homemade dessert. My middle child always picks some type of brownies cheesecake combo. Its very homey and lovely. Easter is our splurge of $15 each child basket premade, hide the boiled dyed eggs with few plastic that hold change to candy. Winner with most eggs gets $1. Keep it simple.
Would LOVE to do this. We talk about it every year. The finances hold us back though. One day!