For those of you who celebrate, that is. What with family to visit and such, sometimes it can be quite the juggling act.
What has worked for us the past few years is we have Christmas at home on Christmas Eve. This year I’m also calling it “Nibble Day,” since instead of making a big meal we’re having a spread of snacks to nosh on during the day.
Then, Christmas morning, we head over to my MIL’s, open the gifts, then in the afternoon, head over to my dad’s, eat dinner and open the gifts. My sister’s family meets us there. Then it’s home again.
Fortunately, our family lives within an hour of each other, so it’s not that bad a travel day.
My family is very scattered: North Miss., Central Miss., New Orleans, Minneapolis and NYC.
Used to be, when my brother lived in Memphis, that we’d pick a location easiest for my Dad to get to, and rent cabins in the closest state park. We stay a couple or few days.
This year we’ve all agreed to go to NYC for Christmas, staying with my sister who lives in TriBeCa. It’s been quite a challenge for me to arrange air travel, car service from LaGuardia & back, and packing arrangements for myself, 3 young-adult kids (and one boyfriend) and Hubby; I’ve also had to do the same for my baby sis, her 4-year old son, & her Hubby. Whew.
I got a box packed last night (and mailed off this a.m.) so that I don’t have to have a checked bag at the airport.
Right now I’ll just be glad when it’s all over! The first hurdle is making it through a 4-hour layover in Atlanta with said 4-year old. :eek:
By some stroke of unanticipated luck Christmas is coming to me this year. I have a fairly small family. We are not reproducing at a replacement rate. For about 30 of my 40 years all of my relatives lived in the NY metro area. Now we’re scattered liberally along the east coast of the US. My mother retired to the frozen north and doesn’t travel farther than the grocery store from November to May.
Our Christmases are typically convoluted, and we live in an apartment with no guest room so hosting the whole family is not an option for us. It usually goes something like: “We can drive up to nothern NJ sleep at my sister’s, but get up really early and go see the southern NY relatives for about an hour and still make it to [my husband’s parents’ south Jersey home] by two. In the evening on the way home we’ll meet my dad in Delaware for a drink…” It’s wearying and not all that fun.
This year, through no planning of mine, 2 branches of my extended but close knit family are coming to visit us in Maryland, and their visits overlap in such a way that we can all share a meal.
So for the first time that he’d be able to remember my son will wake up on Christmas morning in his own home and get to relax, and open presents in his pajamas, which is how I remember Christmas mornings from my childhood. I’m happy for him (and for me).
My son is the only member of the family on my side under 30, and on my husband’s side under 15. We’ve pretty much stopped the presents. The grandparents buy for all the kids. We bring wine or food gifts to the homes we visit, and palm gift cards to the nieces and nephews, but there isn’t the flurry of opening and playing that there used to be.
My family is scattered, but we’re all gathering on Christmas Eve at a beach house that my brother has rented. It’s at a place called Boomerang Beach, about 250km north of Sydney. We’ll be there through Christmas Day and Boxing Day. And thankfully the forecast at the moment is for a relatively cool Christmas Day (max temp in the mid 20s).
So far, we can still do the same things we’ve done for about the past 25 years. Christmas Eve with my husband’s family, here at our house, then Christmas with just us and the kids. Son might or might not be here for that one. It’s just a pretty quiet day. Then the annual Family Christmas Party the Saturday after Christmas. That’s really the big event. When we all started families of our own and had little ones who wanted to be home with Santa presents and stockings on Christmas morning, we moved the family get-together to the weekend. Now some of those little ones have little ones of their own, but they’re still coming home for the party if they can.
Next year we’ll have to see what happens. My SIL’s family and ours are both moving, in opposite directions. Might be the end of the Christmas Eve do.
Sadly, I’m kinda stuck. All my family has passed on, so I spend Christmas with my husband’s family. We got the heck out of Dodge for Thanksgiving, and my poor MIL went through a really rough time.
My SIL has two families: hers and her rich husband’s. Now, her hubby is very nice, but we can’t give her and her spawn the kind of Christmas that her in-laws can. So she has instructed us that our Christmas dinner has to be done and over with by 10:30am, so she can go to her other familys place. We’ve all told her where to head in. She and my BIL were in charge of Thanksgiving since we weren’t here: they didn’t eat Thanksgiving dinner until 8:30pm. Lazy BIL, who didn’t want to help, gave up around 6pm and went to his room. And she expects us to be completely done by 10:30? With everything?
I’m starting to really hate Christmas. I wish I had family that I could go see. I love my MIL dearly, but the rest of the family can go rot.
Our normal routine is to do Xmas Eve at my dad’s (an hour away) or grandma’s (an hour and a half) , Xmas breakfast with my in-laws (hour and 45 minutes away from home) then Xmas dinner at my mom’s (an hour from the in-law’s).
It’s a lot of driving and I’m tired of it so this year we invited the in-laws to our place for breakfast. I’d love to combine them and my mom’s household into one big visit, but brother-in-law has some issues that make him uncomfortable around people and he won’t come if my family is here.
Unfortunately, we’re doing Xmas Eve at grandma’s instead of dad’s this year, which means more driving and scrambling to make plans for the dog. Mr Tavi and I both have to go to gma’s straight from work and the pup needs a potty break. Wish I would have known about this change of plans before tonight :mad:
Several years ago, my FIL insisted we all had to be at their house on Christmas Eve so we could wake up together Christmas morning.
At that time, there four babies, two younger kids, and six adult children along with FIL and MIL for a three bedroom house. (Well, two bedrooms. MIL and FIL slept in their room.) I was trying to sleep on the couch when Ivylad, his mother, and my son (then about five or six) decided to have a chat in the kitchen at 2 in the morning. I don’t think my son slept at all that night (I finally got him to bed about 7pm on Christmas and he was out before I left the room.)
We were all exhausted. I ended up crashing on the floor for an afternoon nap in one of the bedrooms along with my SIL and my BIL. That was the first and last year we ever tried to do that.
Husband’s folks came to spend Thanksgiving with us, and now they’re back in Ocala. Daughter and son-in-law left Friday for 2 weeks in Orlando with his family, tho they’ll go over to Ocala to spend one night with her grandparents. We’re going to my brother’s on Christmas for heavy appetizers and a Yankee gift swap. Those will be the only gifts exchanged.
This will be our most low-key holiday period ever. Honestly, I’m looking forward to the peace and quiet of just 2 of us home alone for most of the time.
Our families live clear across the state from one another, so it really is a juggling act a lot of years, especially since we both have to periodically take call on holidays. And he’s got his show at the community radio station on Tuesday night, so we’re opening our presents to one another tomorrow.
I really like our little night alone together. We get some takeout, plate it up nice, and eat it by candlelight in the dining room. Then we open presents, give the critters their stockings, and drink wine and make out by the light of the tree. Yeah, we’re usually not doing it on Christmas or Christmas Eve, but being flexible with the date makes it infinitely more pleasant than trying to carve out an hour or two for ourselves on either of those days.
This year he has to work on Christmas Eve and I don’t, so I’ll load up the car and come pick him up at noon. We’ll go to his family an hour or so away, and open presents with his parents and sister. Then we’ll all go to his granny and eat a huge meal and open more presents. We’ll come back to our house to tend the critters and reload the car.
Christmas morning, we’ll get up well before the crack of dawn and leave to see my family, five hours away. We’ll hit my parents’ house for presents with them and my brother and his family, then go to the free-for-all at my grandparents’ house. (We really must do something about the gifting situation there–we can’t fit all the people and all the stuff in one room at one time. It’s insane.) We’ll have another big meal and hang out till early evening, then go to my dad’s sister’s house for gifts and food and all with them.
We’ll stay with Mom and Dad till Saturday, then come part of the way back home to stay with some friends. More gifts, more food, and the next day they’ll drive us to the airport to go to New Orleans for New Year’s.
I’m currently stuck in Kuwait hoping to get home in time for Christmas. Best case scenerio seems to be me getting home on Christmas Eve. Didn’t get a chance to buy any gifts. Hopefully Christmas morning will be spent at home with my girls and then latter at the in-laws. Or I’ll still be in a tent in Kuwait or at some airport.
Our folks live a couple blocks from each other, and their tradition is xmas eve while ours is xmas day. Works out perfectly except for the part where we have to go to almost the exact same spot two days in a row.
My family lives in California, and his family is here in Seattle, so thankfully there’s no driving back-and-forth between families! This year we’re staying here, since we’ve spent the last 3 Christmases with my family, and also because someone would have to pay me a LOT of money to travel with my 16-month-old. I’m so happy we’re not traveling – it makes the whole holiday so much less stressful! We’ll have dinner with my in-laws on Christmas Eve, and then we’ll go to the Christmas Eve service at church (my mother-in-law and I are in the handbell choir). On Christmas, we’ll go over to my in-laws’ house late in the morning, and my sister-in-law and her new hubby will be there, too, and we’ll all open presents and then have a big Christmas dinner with some other friends who will come later.
My folks are flying up on the 29th, and we’ll do our “Christmas” with them when they get here, because my mom wants to see her grandson open gifts. And I figure he’s too little to know that it’s no longer Christmas, so that works for us. Also, this way we won’t have to do as much shipping of gifts!
It’s going to be Christmas via webcam this year. I got presents from the family in the mail and they’ve been sitting under my little tree. It’s actually quite warm and festive and has been making me really happy. Especially since I’m free to shake them all I want! I’ll admit I’ve been pretty tempted to peek. I’m going to miss it when the presents are open and real winter sets in- maybe I ought to decorate for Chinese New Years as well.
On Christmas day at the appointed time I’ll unwrap them and say hi to my family. Honestly I think it’s going to be a little strange to be here all alone like that. Then I’ll get on a train and take an overnight ride to a friend’s city. We’ll celebrate in style with an American potluck and no doubt some of that good old fashioned gossip-generating volunteer drama. It’s a celebration we’ve all been looking forward to and it should be fun.
Anyway, much better than last year. Last year I had malaria, AND I dropped our precious pizza (made with cheese from the market three hours away) on the dirt kitchen floor. We scraped it off, reheated it and ate it. But lord that was a low point in my life. This’ll be my third Christmas away. I miss everyone so much! Spend time with your family while you can!
Sweetie, you coming home will be the best gift ever for your family. Fret not the gifts, just picture the joy in your girls’ eyes when they scream “Daddy!” and come racing toward you.