5 Reasons To Travel Over Christmas
Dreaming of the holidays brings to mind falling snow, Christmas trees with piles of gifts underneath, and large family dinners at home. Many of us can’t imagine stepping away from our usual traditions to celebrate the holidays somewhere else. What would Christmas be without running downstairs to open gifts in the morning, cooking a turkey for 6 hours or listening to your drunk uncle make politically incorrect pronouncements over Christmas dinner?
Well, there is an alternative to all this merriment. Christmas is a great time to travel, and get away from home for a while with your closest family. Leaving home may seem counterintuitive to all your current ideas about the holiday season, but there are some very compelling arguments to getting away from it all.
- Someone Else Cooks Christmas Dinner
Baked potatoes or smashed? Fresh cranberries or canned? No one agrees on the answers to these questions, and if you travel for Christmas, you don’t have to worry about it. No more worrying about basting the turkey, making the stuffing, and making sure there’s something for your vegan, gluten-free, soy-free cousin to eat. Let any restaurant at your destination of choice pamper you with a dinner you can cater to suit your needs. Most will offer turkey, but perhaps this year, you’d prefer pasta. Go for it.
- Eliminate Christmas shopping
Many families agree to use gift-buying money to fund a family vacation instead. Not only does this minimize the amount of time you have to spend in crowded shopping malls buying things you’re not sure your loved ones will enjoy, but you know for sure the gift you give yourselves will be loved by everyone. The memories you make will last much longer than a new sweater.
- Less Family Stress/More Family Time
Every holiday season, you inevitably find yourself in a situation where you have to make small talk with your distant uncle at the annual Christmas brunch of your slightly-less-distant aunt. Avoid the stress of small talk with distant family and friends by taking a trip with the ones you love the most. Going away with your closest people ensures that you not only get quality time with those you love most, but you minimize the time spent with those you don’t.
- Meet Loved Ones In A Central Location
Maybe your favourite first cousin lives in Vancouver, while you’ve set up your life in Toronto. Meeting in a central location for the holidays means both of you take on a little bit of the travel burden, while enjoying all of the benefits of spending the holidays together in a beautiful place you’ve both been dying to visit.
- Avoid Decorating Disasters
We all love to see the Christmas decorations adorning the homes of others, but putting up and taking down all those lights, stars, angels and wreaths every year can be exhausting, not to mention expensive. Every year, light bulbs go out, pinecones fall off the wreath and a glass angel loses her wings. Replacing decoration s is expensive – not to mention that the old decorations usually end up in a landfill for eternity. Going away for the holiday means you can let your destination do the decorating, while you simply sit back and enjoy it all.
If the holidays are starting to be more work than wonderment, spend them somewhere new, doing something new, with the ones you love. Let a new tradition evolve in your family – one that you will all enjoy for a long time to come.