You’ve done it. You’ve found your next perfect place that you want to fly to and explore. You know what activities you want to do, where you want to see, found all your accommodation, priced it up and…
But wait… The best time to go is during December and January?!
‘Surely that time is reserved for the family as it’s Christmas and New Year? What about the traditions? What will they think if I went away? Who am I going to celebrate Christmas with? Will they be OK with it?’
With these questions running through your mind, suddenly a moral dilemma and a sense of guilt rushes over you for even considering such a trip but at the same time, this could be your only opportunity to properly get away due to work and you really don’t want to miss out – life is too short, as they say. So what do you do? Decisions, decisions, decisions.
If you’ve ever been put in this position and bailed on your travel plans or are in this position now, then please continue reading as this blog is going to answer some of the thoughts about making such a decision. I’m going to cover the pros and cons of you travelling away during the Christmas period and jet setting on your vacation; talking not only about those that revolve around leaving your family behind but other things that come with the territory. In particular with the downsides, I’ll also talk about ways to combat them so that you can make yourself and your family feel better, allowing you to make the most of your time away.
Pros
Best Time of Year To Go
As you’re probably aware, the world has two hemispheres meaning that different regions of it will have different seasons at different times. This means that each region has an optimal time to visit it when you’re not going to freeze in their winter, be washed away in a monsoon or be burnt to a crisp in the ridiculously hot summer. Going one step further, your activities could be dictated by the time of year, such as skiing. Or it may just be a case of you not wanting to go when it’s busy! For some places, this time of year is during December and January and just can’t be avoided. Sorry but Mother Nature isn’t changing for you any time soon. So should you want to make the most of your time somewhere, you’re going to have to make the dive and disappear during the festive season. This just can’t be avoided but it will be completely worth it as you’ll get to enjoy your trip just as you’d imagined it.
Get Away From Christmas
That’s right and it may come as a shock to those that absolutely love Christmas, who are playing the songs the day after Halloween whilst putting their decorations up but some people don’t like Christmas that much. Good news for those that don’t is that some nations don’t celebrate it either! Well, when I say that, they may not celebrate it themselves but the more touristy places in the world, such as Thailand, still put up the decorations and play the songs in popular commercial areas to appease the travellers from the Western world. However it’s not in such a saturated manner and is easily escapable! I can honestly say that during my trip to Thailand, I could have completely forgotten that Christmas was that day as I was trekking through jungles and kayaking on a lake, disconnected from the outside world. Do you know what? It was kind of peaceful too.
For those that what to go to such an extreme, with a touch of research (thanks Metro.co.uk), I can inform you that it appears that some nations completely ban it publicly, so if you’re a complete bah humbug, now you know where to go! So all your Christmas wishes (or lack there of) can come true!
Experience Christmas a Different Way
Christmas is Christmas and surely only has one way of being celebrated, right? Wrong! Christmas has the same principles to it wherever you go but each nation has it’s own special way of celebrating it. Back at home in England, the usual way is having a nice Christmas dinner with roast potatoes, steamed vegetables, Yorkshire puddings and of course, pigs in blankets. However on the opposite side of the planet in Australia, the cuisine and activities are slightly different. If you’re not at the beach for a BBQ then they are back at home but instead of munching down on some roast potatoes and steamed vegetables, the food of choice is that often eaten in warm weather such as light salads, pasta and seafood, all whilst sat outside. Of course this is only possible when in glorious sunshine and 30℃ compared to the winter in the UK. I managed to go and see a fantastic sunset over Melbourne at the beach along with seeing the penguins come back to their nest on Christmas! Definitely not an experience I would get the pleasure of back at home!
Christmas with Fellow Travellers
Not only can you experience Christmas the traditional way for the nation that you’re heading to but surprising as it might seem, you aren’t going to be the only person travelling away during Christmas. This means you can get a different kind of Christmas when you’re surrounded by new people and gives you plenty of possibilities as to what you can do to “celebrate” the occasion. You could do something that you’d never say, “Hey, I was doing X on Christmas Day” if you were sat at home and being surrounded by adventure seeking fellow travellers, the possibilities are endless!
Time To Yourself
One thing I’ve always found with Christmas is you can be on the go all the time, going from house to house seeing different sections of your family, resulting in not having too much time to yourself . As said in my blog about the benefits of solo travelling, you get the chance to have some time to reflect, which is certainly wanted at the end of year. You can take the time away to properly go over with yourself the year that has just gone by and reset your mind, body and goals for the new year
Cons
Upsetting Family/Yourself
The most obvious and major downside to going away at such a time is the disruption and potential upset brought to you and your family. Now you may be from the kind of family that supports you heading off and travelling the world at such a time of the year but it’s always going to be a bitter pill for both you and them to swallow. As I stated above, Christmas is a time for family to come together, exchange gifts and celebrate it in your usual family way. This is a little hard for them when one part of the family is away and for you, when you’re on your own without any of them around you.
Even for those like myself, who thought they would be immune to this, I will admit that it did affect me somewhat that I went away, leaving me with a sense of loneliness and selfishness for going away. This was in particular felt during my recent trip, where as much as I was having an amazing experience on an adventurous tour, which ended up being just me and the tour guide in the wilderness with no connection home, there were several moments that these feelings hit me hard about being away from the loved ones back home.
As a compromise, you can try and video call them, if the time, connection and timezones allows it, during the special moments of the day based on your family’s usual traditions so you could still be a part of action. This is something that worked for me and my family and was greatly appreciated! A top tip from me, that my mother “really appreciated”, was FaceTiming from the beach on Christmas Day! My mother really loved that… Like REALLY loved it… (major sarcasm alert). But in the end she was grateful to be able to speak to me and have a catch up on events from both my trip, my Christmas Day and chat with the rest of the clan at home.
Want one easy way to get around this problem that isn’t a compromise at all? Take them all with you! Have a family Christmas holiday!
Unable to Call On the Day
Though you’ve travelled to the other side of the world, you may still want to speak to your family to wish them Merry Christmas on the day and somewhat share the feeling together, as suggested in “Upsetting Family/Yourself”. Well, one thing that may cause an issue for you is that the timezones may cause it to be awkward or you could be in a place that doesn’t have any signal for you to use. Either scenario isn’t ideal and can become a burden on you of your family should you want to have that Christmas contact.
So what can you do? When I was faced with the latter of the two issues due to me being in the middle of a national park and surrounded by lake and limestone cliffs, I made sure that I recorded a video message individually for respective people at my last opportunity to send one and then told them to watch it on Christmas Day. This suggestion can easily work for those that are facing the issue of timezones too, though this can be combatted by getting up earlier/going to bed later to make sure you get that conversation in. Trust me, it’ll be worth it and though it may seem like a small thing for you, it’s a huge thing for them.
Traditions
Every family has their own Christmas traditions which you’re brought up with and by the time you’re an adult, they just become second nature. You almost don’t notice you do them until suddenly, you’re on the other side of the world and realise that something is off. Though you have the opportunity to experience Christmas in a different way by embracing another nation’s way of doing it and their traditions, it’s just not going to be the same for you when it comes to celebrating and this could be something you could struggle to adjust to.
Fear not, there is a way around this! If you won’t be home for the Christmas traditions then why not bring the Christmas traditions with you if possible? OK, you won’t be able to open your presents whilst you’re at home with your family but why not take them with you and open them on the day? Or if there’s not a huge gap between Christmas and your return date, you could have a second family Christmas with you all together.
Another suggestion that ties in with the pro of “Christmas with Fellow Travellers”, when you’re coming up with a Christmas plan, you could all bring an individual tradition each to do together to not only help it feel like home but expose yourself to how the international community do things differently. Who knows, you could take one or two of them back home to introduce to your folks.
Expensive Time of Year
One thing that needs to be considered and is certainly a key one is the price of going away at Christmas. With it being the time of year that most people and schools are off, the demand goes up and with that, the damage to your bank account. If you’re restricted by this time of year then you need to ensure that you have saved and are aware of the costs going away at this time of year will bring, especially when tied in with presents you’ll purchase for your family. I know that it is the time of year for giving but it’s doubtful that your family had a loan in mind… This is something that I’ve had to do embarrassingly and though it was paid back straight away, it definitely kills the Christmas spirit.
My advice to ensure that you don’t suffer the same fate as me would be to diligently plan you trip and all your expenses for when you go away much earlier in the year then include a buffer zone in case you decide to go a little over the top of that in the spur of the moment.
Ultimately, although there are a few downsides to going away at Christmas, all it takes is some time and effort in additional planning to ensure that they don’t affect your trip too much and allow both you and your family to have the most enjoyable time in the circumstances. Once you’ve been able to do that and gotten used to it, you will have an amazing time and dare I say it, be doing the same again the year after. I sure hope you find this useful one or another and most importantly, it’s inspired you to take the leap into heading away on that trip of a life time, safe in the mindset that you’re going to truly enjoy it and have your ways of combatting the downsides planned.
As I said, the content of this blog has mostly come from my experiences over the last couple of years of travelling alone for Christmas. However, appreciating that we all think differently on topics, I am very grateful to a friend I’ve known a long time and who is a fellow travel enthusiast, Serena, for her help and perspective on the topic. Be sure to check out her Instagram @hahaserena, where you’ll find some great shots from her travels across the world.
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