What Christmas Traditions Will We Be Able To Keep??

Let me start off by saying Merry Christmas!! We Hope you have had an amazing holiday and that it was full of family, friends and good food!! It seems that the holidays are a bit of a hot topic with the full-time traveling crowd. The reality is that for most, holidays just don’t look the same when living in a tiny space on the move!! For some families this presents a problem. Others, they thrive on that change in traditions!!

Of course with our plans of full-time RV travel being common knowledge (and a hot topic) for our family and friends we encountered A LOT of questions regarding how we plan to do holidays on the road once we have made the official transition. So we thought, what better way to share our Christmas with you than with a discussion of our traditions that we plan/hope to be able to keep while on the road!

#1 Advent

This is our main tradition around Christmas, and for us is a really important way to remember what Christmas is all about! It is what starts off the holiday season for us! We currently have two ways we keep track of Advent with our boys. First, is to light the Advent candles at mealtimes. Second, we have an Advent Calendar, or two that the boys get to “countdown” to Christmas with. As they get older we hope to implement some sort of daily devotional. Something like the “Joshua Tree.” For now we are keeping it simple and answering questions as they have them.

#2 Trains Under the Tree

Jeremy grew up with this tradition, even before we were married we knew it was a tradition we wanted to implement with our family as it grew. Jeremy loved being able to participate in helping build the track each year, and running the trains is an important memory from his childhood. We currently have enough track and train cars to run 5 separate trains, one for each boy and then a single track for us adults. Our boys already adore this tradition and from the first day of Advent they start begging for us to put them up and run them ALL THE TIME!!

#3 Christmas Eve Individual Pizzas

This is a newer tradition for us, but one that we know we want to keep!! On Christmas Eve Kelli makes homemade pizza dough and separates it out into individual sized pizzas for each family member. Each boy, even Jonathan our 1 year old got to add his own toppings this year!

#4 Christmas Eve Stockings

This was something that was very important to Kelli! Kelli grew up with her parents embracing Santa Clause and everything that goes with that choice. Jeremy, on the other hand grew up in a house where Santa Clause was not real, and they emphasized St. Nicholas instead. Since we have also decided to approach Christmas and the traditions we have without Santa Clause, we have had to figure out a way to incorporate some Kelli’s childhood traditions but still stay true to Santa Clause not existing.

The most significant of these traditions for Kelli was the Christmas morning stocking. Because of this we decided to find a way to incorporate it into what we already wanted to do with our kids for Christmas. We knew that we wanted the boys to have a Christmas Eve gift from us that included: New PJ’s, hot cocoa packets and popcorn to be enjoyed while watching a movie together as a family. Packaging this gift inside the boys Christmas stockings was a great way to marry the two traditions without it being about Santa Clause!!

#5 Christmas Morning Breakfast

Kelli makes a breakfast strata and cinnamon rolls for Christmas morning! It’s delicious and helpful to have a pre-prepped meal that makes Christmas morning easy but still special!

#6 The Christmas Story

Jeremy reads the Christmas story in a way the boys are able to understand it before we open any presents. This is an important tradition to us! It helps to keep the focus on the true meaning of why we celebrate this holiday!

#7 The Christmas Tree

This seems to be the hardest tradition to make work in a small space! But to be honest, in the past we have been known to get a smaller tree. Then, set it up on a side table so it is out of reach of small hands. So to have a smaller tree is not something that will be a problem for us. We are fairly confident that the Momentum toy hauler floor plan we are considering at this time will have more than enough room to accommodate a small tree between the two sets of happijac’s in the garage!

We have intentionally focused our Christmas traditions around our immediate family. Making sure that the traditions we have will work no matter where we end up during the holiday season. While visiting extended family during this time is something we will more than likely make an effort to do. It is not something we expect will always be the case and for us and our personalities that is OK!!

For those of you already out on the road traveling full-time, we would love to hear about your holiday traditions!! Did you have to make major changes to the traditions you had before launching out on your adventures?? Leave us a comment and let us know if we missed any of your most important traditions!?

As always…. We are on to the next adventure….

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