Christmas pit stops

imoverit

Do any of you have to go to multiple places for Christmas? Every year we go to at least 4 different gatherings and frankly Im tired, especially having to bring LO everywhere. What do you do? Any tips on making celebrating with family easier?

TJ1979

We have done this every year since MH and I got married.  This year, we put our foot down and said we just aren't doing it.  We chose to do my family for Thanksgiving, and his family for Christmas. 

And then LO got very sick and we didn't end up getting to see anyone except my parents for Thanksgiving, no aunts, uncles, cousins, or grandparents.  So now I feel like I lost.

My parents and his parents are 6 hours apart though, so trying to do both was really ridiculous.

imoverit

TJ1979:

We have done this every year since MH and I got married.nbsp; This year, we put our foot down and said we just aren't doing it.nbsp; We chose to do my family for Thanksgiving, and his family for Christmas.nbsp;
And then LO got very sick and we didn't end up getting to see anyone except my parents for Thanksgiving, no aunts, uncles, cousins, or grandparents.nbsp; So now I feel like I lost.
My parents and his parents are 6 hours apart though, so trying to do both was really ridiculous.

Awe sorry about Thanksgiving. Glad you got to see your parents at the very least. 6 hours apart holy moly?!

kgs0505

Thanksgiving I usually host, so NBD. Xmas tho, we do two stops. Breakfast with MIL and dinner with my aunt/uncle. Breakfast is getting tougher now that we have ds and it's an hour drive. I always feel so rushed in the morning when I just want to take my time with presents and getting ready.

Dragonfly1226

We live a five hour car ride away from my family and a two hor plane ride away from dh's family. We choose one family for Thanksgiving. Then we go to the other family for Christmas week and then travel back to wherever we spent Thanksgiving for the next week. However, when I was pregnant we made it clear that we were not traveling for Christmas once DS was old enough to understand that Santa was coming. We think that will be next year. Our families will before than welcome to come to us, but we won't leave home until after Christmas.

LnR70707

This is a huge fight in our house every year.  While both sets of grandparents are local, we end up traveling to both houses on BOTH Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.  DH thinks a reasonable answer is to go to both on Christmas Eve, but make my family come to our house every year, while still going to his parents Christmas day.   I think a reasonable compromise is to rotate each year, only seeing one family (or only traveling to one) on Xmas eve, and traveling to the other family Xmas day....meaning every other year we wouldn't be at the ILs for christmas day.   You tell me who is right here, because DH is a big damn baby about it.

Dragonfly1226

L&R70707:

This is a huge fight in our house every year.  While both sets of grandparents are local, we end up traveling to both houses on BOTH Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.  DH thinks a reasonable answer is to go to both on Christmas Eve, but make my family come to our house every year, while still going to his parents Christmas day.   I think a reasonable compromise is to rotate each year, only seeing one family (or only traveling to one) on Xmas eve, and traveling to the other family Xmas day....meaning every other year we wouldn't be at the ILs for christmas day.   You tell me who is right here, because DH is a big damn baby about it.

You are totally right!!! One family for Christmas Eve and the other for Christmas day. Why can't men ever be logical?

imoverit

So Im not alone I see. Thanks ladies.

Saraevh

Christmas turns into a total PIA for us every year too and we keep saying we're going to switch things up but haven't yet. My family lives about 2 hours away from us, so we go up Christmas Eve, stop by 3 different houses (between both sides of my family) then drive back home Christmas day and make 2 pit stops for DH's family. It gets to be a lot, especially now that we have kids.

ccam

My family lives 2 hours away while my ILs are local. We do Christmas Eve with the ILs and travel to my parents for Christmas day. It works for us!

mystic_J

L&R70707:

This is a huge fight in our house every year.  While both sets of grandparents are local, we end up traveling to both houses on BOTH Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.  DH thinks a reasonable answer is to go to both on Christmas Eve, but make my family come to our house every year, while still going to his parents Christmas day.   I think a reasonable compromise is to rotate each year, only seeing one family (or only traveling to one) on Xmas eve, and traveling to the other family Xmas day....meaning every other year we wouldn't be at the ILs for christmas day.   You tell me who is right here, because DH is a big damn baby about it.

 You are 100% right! 

mystic_J

This is also a fight with us too. My parents are divorced and live 4+ hours away from each other, while DH's parents are 20 minutes away from us. In the beginning of our marriage, we were told by my IL's that we would adopt the holiday system already in place with his older brother and his wife, which was alternate which family we saw on Thanksgiving and Christmas, and switch each year. That's all fine and good....if you don't have divorced parents. Basically, I have to choose one of my parents for the holiday that is with my family, and try to squeeze the other in on a day other than the actual holiday as to not cut into my IL's time. Which means I am always disappointing one of my parents, since each gets to spend the actual holiday with me every other year. And yeah, my MIL has absolutely no sympathy for my situation, and DH sees nothing wrong with the current system.

kbeach82

My family is local, while DH's family is about a 4 hour drive away. This doesn't really create an issue for us as far as the Christmas holiday is concerned because DH's family doesn't really celebrate Christmas. His mother is Jewish (his father is from Italy, was raised Catholic, but converted to Judaism so he could have permission to marry DH's mom), so they celebrate Hannukah.

Typically, we see DH's family for Thanksgiving (although we didn't this year because they didn't want to travel to come and stay with us - whatever). We go to my parents' house on Christmas Eve, they come to our house on Christmas to exchange gifts (before DS, we spent the night at their place on Christmas Eve and had brunch with them Christmas morning), and then my whole family gets together at my aunt's house for Christmas dinner.

queenbone

This isn't really an issue for us since my family is in town and DH's is far away.  We traveled to spend Christmas with DH's family when I was pg with DS1 and when DS1 was 2 at which point DH promised me that we wouldn't have to travel again at Christmas for 6 yrs. He really hates flying at Christmas and would rather go visit his family in the summer. I don't think that is really fair, but it is his family so I don't force it.They are always welcome to stay with us for Christmas but they seldom take us up on it. Allegedly we keep the house too cold.

When I was young and both sides of my family were in town we always did Christmas Eve with my dad's family and Christmas Day with my mom's family. Then we'd rotate Thanksgivings. Nearly all my dad's family has passed or moved away so that's a non-issue now.