Special days when traveling full time and packing light look different from when we’re home, but they are just as meaningful
Whether Christmas, Thanksgiving, or other special occasions, how we celebrate holidays while traveling is important to our family. At the same time, we travel light and have to pack light. So how do we keep that balance, while celebrating the season?
The first time Jodie and I felt included in a holiday that wasn’t our own, we were putting maple leaf tattoos on our faces. It was July 1, 2010, Canada Day. It’s not always easy to celebrate holidays while traveling. But the hundreds of people celebrating Canada’s independence at a lamb barbecue on Saturna Island made us two Americans feel like honorary Canadians.
Fast forward to our full time global travels as a family, and we have learned all the more how important it is to observe special days abroad. They might include birthdays, big holidays from home, or a special day or time of year for that country. In each case, we have found ways to observe special days in our own way as a family, and as respectful yet included guests in the places we visit.
“Grounding in the known can make us all the more ready and receptive for something new.”
Why is it important to celebrate holidays while traveling?
Travel entails so much disruption to routines and schedules. That disruption opens up opportunities for new experiences, but it can be disconcerting.
When we take time for special days we know, we reconnect with something familiar. Special days keep us grounded to what we know. That familiarity is part of who we are, no matter where we are. Connection to home and routine reassures us, comforts us, energizes us. Funnily enough, grounding in the known can make us all the more ready and receptive for something new.
A few ways our family has connected with special days from home while living nomadically
When we think about the places we’ve been and how different our special days have looked, I’m all the more grateful for the way we made times from home into parts of our travels:
- Animal adventures in Chiang Mai, Thailand, for Aster’s birthday
- Cooked our own Thanksgiving dinner in Porto, Portugal, including stuffing, roast chicken, potatoes, and Brussels sprouts. It was small, simple, and delicious. For a starter course, we set out a board of Gouda cheese and bread. Instead of cranberry, we used a tart, citrusy quince paste. And the chess pie Jodie baked was amazing
- Cheesecake and cherry blossoms in Osaka, Japan, for Jodie’s birthday
- An escape room in Sevilla, Spain, for Connor’s birthday
- During Halloween in Japan, we focused on a week of treats and spooky themes at Tokyo Disney
Those are just a few ways we follow special days when we are away from our home country. Here are some ideas you might work into your travels abroad with your family.
“Experiences are something we can enjoy in the moment, plus they become the foundation of many family memories and stories.”
Gratitude/ways we celebrate holidays while traveling abroad full time
When I think about the holidays and observing them abroad, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year come up the most for us as a family from the USA.
New Year
New Year tends to be the easiest. Many cultures and countries observe a Jan. 1 New Year’s Day and Dec. 31 New Year’s Eve. We also find it easy to observe New Year since we consider it more of a night in instead of a night out.
In Hue, Vietnam, for 2023, we found ourselves actually arriving in town on New Year’s Eve 2022. Walking to our apartment got pretty festive, as the area was hosting a massive street party full of dancing and live music. We didn’t do as much, but we did go out into the festivities for a little bit, since they were close to our hotel, and Aster and I danced together.
On the other hand, we were in Sevilla, Spain, to ring in 2024. We cooked up a special dinner and had some celebratory drinks on hand (sparkling non-alcoholic cider for the kids, and a cava, or Spanish sparkling wine, for us adults). When the year changed, the streets and skies came alive with fireworks, people honking horns, and general roaming about and calls of cheer for the new year. We also ate our 12 grapes, one for each month, a Spanish new year tradition going back to the early 1900s!
Plus, it was still day or evening for our respective families back in the USA. We called them from the future and wished them a happy new year, while they waited for the year to change in their own time zones.
New Year in other cultures
Jan. 1 isn’t the only new year. Lunar New Year (also referred to as Chinese New Year) is often sometime during January. We’ve celebrated that in Singapore, wandering Chinatown there and taking in how people were out and about (not to mention eating lots of durian). For 2025, we plan to be in Taiwan (plans in progress as of when I’m writing this).
We’re more strategic about other new years. Since we aren’t partiers, for example, we aren’t going to base ourselves somewhere that considers new year a huge night out.
As much as we love Thailand, the water play that accompanies Songkran, usually in April, is a no-go for us. All the water balloons and water guns wouldn’t play well with Jodie’s computerized prosthetic leg. We’ll head to Thailand at other times instead.
How will we observe the new year this year?
For 2025, we’ll celebrate the new year in Japan. As I write this, we haven’t made plans yet. We’ll be seeing what local events are happening. If any appeal to us, we’ll check them out. Otherwise, we’ll likely cook up a dinner of Japanese food and have some special beverages on hand. If other traditions come into play with folks in the area, we’ll see how we can respectfully be part of them.
Christmas
A Christmas tree made out of our backpacks and carry on rolling bags? Gift wrapping paper made from tourism board brochures? How about a tree topper star blinged together out of our passports?
Nope.
As much as we enjoy the Christmas decor of our home country, we give ourselves permission to do something different when we’re abroad.
While we celebrate holidays while traveling, how Christmas looks for us varies a lot. For 2023, for example, we were in Portugal and Spain during the winter holidays. Since those countries come from a Christian Catholic tradition, there was Christmas galore, especially local decorations, festivals, and above all, outdoor night markets full of tasty treats and hot beverages. We look for events where we’re going to be (such as a Christmas tree lighting ceremony in Porto) and go to some of those.
During 2022 though, we were in Vietnam. Many Asian countries observe Christmas in varying ways, at least with decorations and shopping.
Personally, one of my favorite moments was eating pho for breakfast at the rooftop restaurant in our Hanoi hotel, while the sound system played the Spanish-language Christmas carol “Feliz Navidad.”
That year, on Christmas morning we made the kids a scavenger hunt around our hotel’s courtyard, complete with little treats and candies. We went for a dip in the pool, watched movies, and enjoyed a low-key day of rest and togetherness.
What about Christmas gifts?
The biggest difference in our Christmas is that we don’t exchange much in the way of physical gifts. We often get various treats, especially if there’s a traditional local holiday food. We might get some small gifts. Usually our gift-giving focuses on a family experience (more on that in sec).
We find it much easier, and much less stressful, to forgo exchanging typical Christmas gifts. We simply don’t have the space, and the four of us can only carry so much luggage. By shifting our Christmas day focus to experiences, simple pleasures, and relaxed family time, we find our Christmas day is a day of recharging and reconnecting as a family.
How will we celebrate Christmas this year?
For us, Christmas 2024 began in October.
That October trip to Tokyo Disney I mentioned earlier? It was part of a family Christmas gift.
As with New Year, we’ll celebrate Christmas in Japan. We’re all really looking forward to seeing how Christmas gets showcased here, especially holiday treats and special foods!
Thanksgiving
Food, gratitude, togetherness: American Thanksgiving is one of our favorite holidays. When we celebrate holidays while traveling, we often have to get creative, but especially with Thanksgiving. While we cooked up our own small-scale feast in Portugal, sometimes we’ve had to have Thanksgiving look very different.
In 2022 for example, we were in Chiang Mai, Thailand. We celebrated Thanksgiving by spending the day participating in a Thai cooking class. From visiting and shopping at a market to cooking (and enjoying) a five-course meal, we observed Thanksgiving in a very different way. However, it stayed true to our love of good food, being together, and being grateful for what we have.
Why not buy regular gifts and carry or ship them home?
Why not buy regular gifts? It’s a great question, with a simple answer: We travel full time. Since we can only carry so much, we pack light. Plus, shipping things internationally can be prohibitively expensive (as we learned in Vietnam).
If we were traveling in a more there-and-back-again way, we might consider more in the way of gifts. Since we travel continuously, if we get something, it needs to be something useful, something we consume, or both.
Scavenger hunts
From Easter to birthdays, scavenger hunts have long been part of our family traditions. We routinely work them into our birthdays and holidays abroad.
Prior to the day, Jodie picks out a few small treats and gifts. While the kids are asleep that morning, I write up clues and hide them around our accommodation. Each clue includes one of those little gifts, as well as the next clue.
The hunt culminates in a small card with a little message for the day—and sometimes an announcement for the experience our family will have that day.
Treats and experiences
As far as we’re concerned, treats and experiences make the best souvenirs. They’re also a great gift to give when we celebrate holidays while traveling. Treats are delicious and don’t need to be packed. Experiences are something we can enjoy in the moment, plus they become the foundation of many family memories and stories.
We enjoy finding treats that reflect the culture we’re in, and experiences that hit a sweet spot of our interests and the culture where we are guests.
In Sevilla, Spain, in 2023, for example, we enjoyed Connor’s birthday with lunch at a neighborhood Japanese restaurant (Japanese food is a family favorite), followed by an escape room. For 2024, we’re in Japan. For Aster’s birthday, our Straw Hat family of One Piece fans will be driving throughout Kumamoto Prefecture and visiting statues of the One Piece main characters.
Small physical gifts
Small gifts can be lovely too though. Themed socks (such as my and Connor’s sushi socks and ramen socks), tiny cozy friends, or little baubles that go on backpacks come into play with our gifts. They reflect our interests, they’re fun and useful, and they brighten up the day all the more.
Sharing local special days in the countries we are visiting
However, holidays aren’t just about the special days from home that we care about. Every place has its own special days too. At the least, we often work learning about those occasions into our schoolwork with the kids.
For local observances, we don’t jump into any and every special day, especially religious days when we’re not part of that religion. But winter holidays, independence days, cultural days, and other special days? We’ll often find a local event that we can be part of.
You can pack light while still making space for special occasions and holidays
Packing light makes travel all the easier. Observing special occasions and holidays makes travel all the more meaningful, and that’s why we celebrate holidays while traveling abroad in this nomadic stage of our lives.
Instead of lots of physical gifts, we make our special days fun thanks to a combo of food, treats, small gifts, and experiences. That way we enjoy our special days in the moment, and we have all the more to look back on in our memories and family stories down the road.
