I have never been a huge Christmas person. Some people LOVE the Christmas season and while I like it just fine; I also tend to get really stressed during December. The pressure to buy the perfect gifts with money I might not have, visit everyone at exactly the time they want and participate in Christmas traditions I really don’t care about often makes me dread the holidays completely.
Usually every year I find myself saying to Anson, “I HATE CHRISTMAS!” Then I spend time thinking about how much I hate that I end up hating Christmas. Christmas should be a beautiful time of year and that’s what I want it to be for me, too!
Earlier this year, Anson and I talked about not doing the whole gift thing with our family. We don’t need anything and honestly, neither do our kids. Sure, they think they need electronics and 56 new sweatshirts from specific stores, but in reality– THEY DO NOT!
Lately, I’ve really been thinking about the things we talk about to others. Do we usually spend time telling people what things we received as gifts or do we tend to talk about the experiences we had or things we did? Honestly, I have no idea what I got last year for Christmas. I can probably remember if I think long enough, but I definitely remember things that happened.
Gifts are often forgotten, but experiences stay with us for years and often our entire lives.
So this year– we are sorta skipping Christmas!
On December 12, we are flying to Florida where we will spend some time with some amazing friends of ours that we haven’t seen in years. Then we will board the Carnival Sunshine and go on an 8-day cruise with stops in Aruba, Curacao
You already know how much we love cruising and celebrating Christmas together on a boat– just the 5 of us (and a couple thousand strangers!)– sounded perfect to us. We might not wake up on Christmas morning and unwrap a pile of gifts, but I bet that we are going to enjoy our Christmas a lot this year!
Have you ever opted for no gifts during the holidays in favour of an experience?
Who has been to Aruba or Curacao and has some tips?!
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