Do you travel for holidays or do you prefer to stay at home?  Since having children, we have done both and I haven’t decided which I like the best.  This year, we are staying home for the holidays.  We are making a quick jaunt over to Panama City Beach to celebrate Christmas with the grandparents but for much of the holiday break we will be home.

If you celebrate with presents, do you travel with gifts with you or leave them at home?  We spent one Christmas in Europe.  Our children were small enough that they didn’t really miss out on anything when we decided that our three week trip overseas was going to be our gift itself.  We did, however, get a visit from Santa.  Another year, we drove to Gatlinburg, Tennessee.  We packed up all of our Christmas gifts alongside our clothing and snacks.  Santa found us there as well.

Even though we didn’t go overboard with gift purchases during either of those trips, it was a hassle to bring everything with us and then turn around and bring everything back.  In the same token, we are trying to raise our children to realize that vacations and the experiences are gifts themselves.  I think that there is a happy medium…I just haven’t found it yet!

If you celebrate Christmas and travel during the holidays, do you bring the gifts with you or do you have a special family celebration when you get home.  Is the vacation the gift itself?  How do you handle family gift giving when you aren’t at home for the holidays?

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