Travel instead of Christmas?

[Fly4free]

I don't think you necessarily have to be on the vacation on 12/25 for it to be a gift ~ I can see taking the trip after Christmas day working out better - C-mas morning they could unwrap the trip *details/where you're going* they might ? the lack of gifts under the tree but you could come up with something to tell them or wrap empty *well not empty they should have something in them for weight* boxes

We did this about 2 years ago. We seriously scaled down Christmas gifts, and had told the kids we would be taking a vacation instead. The surprise was when they each opened a Mickey Mouse Christmas card with a note telling them the surprise vacation was going to be to Disneyworld. I also included pics of POR where we were staying.

We left the first weekend after the new year so they did miss a few days of school, but the prices were so much better and the parks were not crowded! I would do a vacation over Christmas in heartbeat, but my parents and sister would be offended.

 

[DisneyFansInLINY]

My husband and I started doing this last year by not exchanging gifts and using the money we would have spent towards our vacation. We still buy gifts for our daughter as she is too little to understand that there will be no toys this year but you get a vacation instead. And we don't go for Christmas but rather at the end of January/beginning of February.

 

[disneydreamer1970]

We are giving our kids a trip to Disney on December 4th. They will find out on this day because Santa is going to arrive early.

We have a few things for them for Christmas morning, but I am sure that they are going to be very excited with the trip!

I can't wait!! Only 59 more days!

Trish

 

[Darcy03231]

We've done this for years. On Christmas Day the kids get their stockings and some small gifts. In July/August I give them all a budget for a family vacation. They each plan a trip using the budget. On Christmas morning after we do stockings and their few gifts each child makes his/her presentation about where we should go and why. We then vote (with mom and dad having the final say). Each child has had his or her vacation chosen at least once. Its a lot of fun and sometimes the kids even vote on other kids vacation.

After dinner we drag out the photo albums/videos from previous years and "relive" our vacations. So far we've done a dude ranch, several cruises, several all inclusives, Florida vacation (Seaworld, Busch Gardens, US/IOA, Kennedy Space Center), BG/Virginia Beach, Washington DC, San Diego/LA.

I was sweating the year oldest DS planned a white water rafting/camping trip down the Colorado river (I'm not a camper). Everyone was going his way until I realized he forgot to include airfare which would have put the trip way over budget!

 

[JaymeC]

We'll be doing gifts a few more years, but our lil ones are only 4 and 5 I actually hope to do this as they get older, but right now I'm content with them getting stuff from santa Having said that, we don't go all-out, and we're the ONLY ones who buy stuff for them. We live far from other family and neither side of the family really sends anything for Christmas, so our Christmas is pretty low-key already. If we had the big Christmas pressure I think I'd go a bit nuts

 

[reservations4five]

We've done this for years. On Christmas Day the kids get their stockings and some small gifts. In July/August I give them all a budget for a family vacation. They each plan a trip using the budget. On Christmas morning after we do stockings and their few gifts each child makes his/her presentation about where we should go and why. We then vote (with mom and dad having the final say). Each child has had his or her vacation chosen at least once. Its a lot of fun and sometimes the kids even vote on other kids vacation.

After dinner we drag out the photo albums/videos from previous years and "relive" our vacations. So far we've done a dude ranch, several cruises, several all inclusives, Florida vacation (Seaworld, Busch Gardens, US/IOA, Kennedy Space Center), BG/Virginia Beach, Washington DC, San Diego/LA.

I was sweating the year oldest DS planned a white water rafting/camping trip down the Colorado river (I'm not a camper). Everyone was going his way until I realized he forgot to include airfare which would have put the trip way over budget!

I love this idea!!

 

[angwill]

This is what we do as well. DS gets just a few gifts though as well. We go on vacation as soon as school gets out for Christmas break.

 

[kydisneyfans]

First time for us this year too-we are going to Nashville heading into Christmas and will get home Christmas Eve for church. We are all in agreement that we should be in our own beds Christmas morning. Gifts will be a few for our 11 year old DS, then whatever I can get using the early bird $10 gift cards and newspaper coupons that flood my mailbox heading into the season.

Family time is more important than stuff.

 

[spurk5532]

We did this for a couple years. Instead of doing the gifts and all we went on a family skiing trip. It was so much better than gifts and we have so many memories. In the long run I think it ended up being cheaper too.

 

[eliza61]

We started last year taking a family vacation instead of buying gifts/Santa. I was just curious if anyone else out there does anything similar?

We are working on trying to simplify our lives- less stuff, less clutter.

We had a wonderful trip to disney 4 years ago in lieu of Christmas. My kids really surprised me, when I asked them what they wanted for christmas and they said a trip, I emphasized that the trip would be the gift. No video games, no ipods, no cell phone upgrades. nada.

I really thought they would cave but they didn't.

 

[kkmcan]

We did this last year and while the trip was amazing and we had such a great time we were all sad or Christmas Eve when we missed the festivities and traditions going on at home (my moms house). My mom has a Christmas eve tradition with a dinner and gifts and relatives coming over and tons of different kinds of cookies and treats. The kids were crying, I was near tears with regret that we missed it all. It didn't feel like Christmas at all even at WDW. I swore we would never again not be home for Christmas time.

The idea when we planned this trip was to not buy gifts but we ended up doing that anyways and when we got home we opened all our gifts. So I spent as much plus our huge vacation!

 

[Nancyg56]

When my children were younger we decided to take them to Disney for Christmas. We bought them one big gift from Santa who conveniently came a little early. We all really loved this, although DH and I decided to never travel for Christmas again. The kids loved the trip, they got to fly for the first time, saw a lot of attractions, spent several days in Disney but DH and I did miss spending Christmas Day at home.

 

[RIDisneyFan]

We're kind of do that this year. Our DDs (11 and 13) are being surprised with a trip from 12/1 - 12/7. This is going to be "most" of their Christmas presents from me and DH. They will get a couple of small gifts from us to open on Christmas morning plus presents from their grandparents and uncles. Basically we are justifying taking a Disney trip in December by celebrating a lot while we are there, even if these events don't actually fall on the dates we will be there. We will be celebrating:
Christmas - by going to MVMCP
DD's birthday - which is on 12/24
My birthday - which is on 12/20
DH's birthday - 1/12
Wedding Anniversary - 10/15 (ok, this one is a little late - but I don't mind waiting if it means having dinner at Le Cellier )
We will get DD a birthday button while we are there and buy a cake at the Comtemporary; the rest are just "our" celebrations.

 

[Nevergrow'nup]

We tell the kids that we are "buying a memory" instead of too many presents. We have done side trips on vacations like US or Kennedy Space center, concerts, and a surprise trip to Disney. This year I tink we are doing a ski trip.

The way I explained it to the kids was, I asked them what they got for Christmas last year, 5 years ago, etc. When they couldn't remember very well. I asked them where we went for vacation....... They understood and have enjoyed helping pick out where to go every year. Our budget decides how expensive and where we go.

When we are going to be out of town for Christmas, I put out decorations but no tree.