Christmas Traditons for a Travelling Family

We travel every year for Christmas too bc of military. What we do is decorate the tree here in PA and the stockings are hung where we are going (which is usually my moms). My daughter also bakes cookie Christmas Eve night. She wakes everyone up including the grandparents the next morning to open presents and then we go to my mother in law to open more presents. If there is a big gift that can't travel we leave it here and give it to her before we leave or its set up when she gets back. The lil one is too little to know the difference.

We have pigs in a blanket every Christmas morning (little sausages wrapped in a biscuit then baked). I lay out a tray of them on the coffee table and we snack on them as we open presents and such. My kids are 6 and 8 and they look forward to them every Christmas morning.

This will be our fourth home in five years, and we travel almost every year for Christmas itself. I understand!

We have a few traditions that we do with our little men, who will be 4 and 2 this Christmas. We hang stockings together, decorate the tree together, listen to Christmas music, do a devotion around an Advent wreath with candles (which they love to blow out!, and it's small so we take it with us when we travel), etc.

I think the thing the boys love best, though, is that every year we go to a bookstore and get a few Christmas books. They only come out at Christmas, and when we pack up the rest of the decorations, those are packed up, too. We do the same with our Christmas movies... they are only out at Christmas time. (Pretty much the month of December, into the beginning of January.) The kids love to see their "old friends" the books and DVDs, and they really love shopping for new ones, too.

Whatever you decide, good luck!

No matter where you are you can always do the cookies & milk for Santa, read the Christmas story from the Bible on Christmas Eve, leave "raindeer food" out on the porch Christmas Eve night. We also ready the Night Before Christmas at some point. Those are all traditions we do each year.

LOL! My whole family lived in the same city in Missouri, yet we always traveled away for Christmas, usually on Christmas day or before to escape the cold; we'd go to Arizona. My parents always told me that Santa knew where I was, and Mom would bring my Cmas stocking along, and of course, all kinds of little things appeared in it on Cmas morning. We always had the family gift things earlier, by maybe a week.

So fast-forward 50+ years, and I now have a pre-schooler, and again, we still are traveling to warmer climates for Christmas. Last year and this year, we will board a plane at 6am to travel to Florida. My sister also has a pre-schooler, so we just have Santa visit a day early. Christmas eve morning, Santa leaves a note & a toy. Really, at this age they are not time/date understanding. As they grow older and understand, you may want to have their special stocking that goes along with them.

We travel every year for Christmas to my husband and I's hometown. It makes it nice because both our families are in the same/surrounding towns. We have started to make the travel our tradition, if you will.
I would make the travel process part of your traditions. Maybe it is stopping at the same place every year to take a picture or have a certain local "thing" you do in the town you are in, something local and fun that your kiddos will look forward to and recognize as being their "tradition"
Best,

OK, check this out: www.adventconspiracy.org

We do this and the kids LOVE it. I've posted about it before. A couple of years ago they came into a Christmas morning filled with gifts and decided they'd rather go outside and play than open gifts. What we give has meaning, charity, love and time all wrapped up in it. They never ever ever ever get the hot toy and they've never ever ever ever missed it.

Travel makes this sort of thing a lot more convenient, too. It's about the time and energy you put into your relationship.

We were in a similar situation. Something easy to do is Christmas pj's. On Christmas eve, we open one gift each...our Christmas pj's. The kids love it! You could also do an ornament tradition. Each Christmas, we give each of the kids 1 - 4 ornaments representing what they did or liked over the past year (soccer, spongebob, played an instrument, etc.) Our 12 year old daughter has enough to put up her own tree. As we decorate the trees (yes, trees) each year for Christmas, we talk about the ornaments and what they mean to us. With moving around the way that you do, you could collect some really neat ones for the kids!