Did your family travel to spend Christmas/Thanksgiving with relatives?

[Anonymous]

Growing up did your family travel to visit relatives over the holidays or did you celebrate Thanksgiving/Christmas at your own homes? Now that you're older do you travel or stay at home for the holidays?

[Anonymous]

We did not but we lived in the same town as my parents' families. My grandmothers came and spent the time at our house. We live about two and a half hours from our families (different directions). We travel to my in laws for Thanksgiving. We don't love to cook and they do and it's fun to have everyone together. But, for Christmas, we stay home. When the kids were little, we tried traveling but it wasn't fun for the kids to have Christmas away from home. Much as I love our families, I love having our own Christmas traditions and celebrations.

[Anonymous]

My family never traveled for the holidays. I had a single mom who worked in retail and she could never take time off around the holidays - they were blackout periods.

Now we always go to her house because unfortunately she still works in retail and still cannot ever take a day off around the holidays.

[Anonymous]

We lived in NY, and drove to NJ for Thanksgiving. For Hanukah we went to a relative's house a couple of towns away. 15 minute drive.

As an adult I don't celebrate holidays, so don't travel.

[Anonymous]

We often drove to visit with my grandparents. Both sets lived near each other so we usually got to spend time with both of them during the holidays.

It's funny how life goes full circle. My adult kids now travel to our house. One of my kids got in today. We have another one coming in late tomorrow night. And we are really hoping my oldest will be able to get here but the weather may keep them at home this year. This year I am just thankful they are all safe here in the United States. This time last year both of my boys were in Afghanistan.

[Anonymous]

My grandparents were all overseas, so we always had the holidays at home.

DH's grandparents lived in the same town as his parents, so no travel required there either.

My preference is to stay at home and buildout own traditions, but my MIL is kind of insane about Christmas and DH has 2 very elderly grandmothers who can't really travel, so we end up traveling fairly regularly (otherwise his mom will leave them alone for holidays so she can see her grandkid). I'm trying to get back to an every other year pattern-but even with that we end up traveling somewhere near the holiday.

[Anonymous]

Family members are always travelled to our hometown since a big chunk of our family lived there, including the matriarch of the fam. We live overseas now and we're flying home tomorrow to celebrate Thanksgiving. Coming back for Christmas too. It's a great bang for the buck because we can see everyone at once for a few days and the kids can all play together.

[Anonymous]

We were within 1-3 hours driving distance. We spent Thanksgiving with my dad's side of the family and Christmas with my mom's. When we were young we would do Christmas Eve/Christmas morning at our house and then drive to my grandparents.

[Anonymous]

Yes, and it was from Boston to Southwestern VA (Cana). 12 hours of hell.

[Anonymous]

Thanksgiving we drove to New England for 30+ years. It was a marathon of running all over to see this relative or that one. For Xmas we went 30 mins to (local)Grandmother's.
We have had Thanksgiving at our house for 7 years now. Just had a to-do a few weeks with my mom about Xmas and how we will not be traveling to her house (Philly) but staying home instead. She arrived for Tgiving a few hours ago. It is AWKWARD right now to say the least.

[Anonymous]

When I was little, we alternated years having Thanksgiving at an uncle's and at our house, 1.5 hours away. Christmas was at home. My husband drove every year 6 hours to visit relatives for Christmas.

Now we do Thanksgiving with my local in-laws, and travel for Christmas (5+ hour drive) to visit my family for a week. We were going to stay home this year but our 6 and 4 year olds were aghast at the idea of not spending Christmas with their beloved cousins, plus it's one of the few opportunities I have for an extended visit with my siblings, so we're now planning on going. I always imagined by this stage we'd be having our own Christmas at home like I did growing up, but our annual trip has become it's own cherished tradition.

[Anonymous]

We didn't travel, because we lived in the same town as our entire extended family. Now I travel because we don't live near anyone.

[Anonymous]

Grew up in NoVa, traveled to PA for Christmas (3.5 hours) every year for probably fifteen years. We would get there Xmas eve or earlier and wake up and do presents at my grandparents house Christmas morning. Then the PA cousins and aunts and uncles would come over later in the day. Eventually my dad got sick of it and insisted we open gifts at home Xmas morning and then drive to PA (sometimes he came with, sometimes he stayed home). We finally gave up this routine about four years ago, not long before I married.

[Anonymous]

Growing up we lived in an area without any local family and family lived thousands of miles away. Never spent holidays with extended family. My parents didn't like celebrating holidays so we never really did anything (for Thanksgiving we would go to a restaurant to eat, etc.). This always bothered me, I didn't like having lonely holidays.

Now we also live in an area with no family, so we never spend holidays with family. I find it very depressing.

[Anonymous]

No, and the holidays seemed to be different every year so not a lot of tradition. There was enough family local that thanksgiving was usually at our house or another local relative's house. Christmas was more of a hodge podge. Most years, starting when I was about 7-8, we were traveling - often skiing, sometimes other travel, never involving relatives. So "Christmas" would typically be celebrated at some other time, usually a few days before. I think I was in my 20s before I was actually home on Christmas Day. Now we tend to be home for Christmas, but I am thinking about going back to traveling next year.