Crusing during Christmas with kids

[hammock in the shade]

Im looking for gift ideas for my children ,we are sailing 12/23-1/3 . My children are 14 , 11, 9 and 6 . The 2 older ones get the whole "Santa " thing but Im concerned about the younger ones . Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated .:)

[Onessa]

When DD was younger - Santa came before or after the trip to our house. I'd generally eMail him to let him know we were going to be out-of-town. Then the on-board or other location (if not a cruise vacation) would be just from Mom and Dad and would be small and/or trip specific.

 

Stockings hung near the balconey with care and a tiny, tiny tree with charms we've collected over the years as ornaments. It can be quite festive!

 

Now at 14YO, she's thrilled with on-line minutes (I premake a certificate), some special jewlery and a few new outfits (all easily packed). I do a small roll of giftwrap and some tape and make a gallent effort to wrap (in so far as unwrapping a present is half the fun for her). Needless to say the big stuff again waits until after the trip (even if I could have gotten the new curling broom TO and FROM Rome, I don't know if RCCI would have let me bring it on board)

[A&Jfamily]

Im looking for gift ideas for my children ,we are sailing 12/23-1/3 . My children are 14 , 11, 9 and 6 . The 2 older ones get the whole "Santa " thing but Im concerned about the younger ones . Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated .:)

 

I would also wager to guess that your 9 yo gets the whole santa thing too - they tend to get ragged on by about 7 or 8 if they haven't figured it out.

 

I don't know how many presents Santa brings to each child in your house. But you could always write Santa, tell him that the family was taking a vacation, and to limit his gifts to X number per child, or else to please make the gifts small and put them in the stockings. You could prestuff the stockings and just pack them in their own, LOCKED, suitcase.;) You could even wrap them before putting them in the stocking.

 

And for that, here are my suggestions:

 

video games

books

jewelry girls/watch for boys

DVD's

CD's

gift cards (Toys R Us, Target, Itunes)

Ipod shuffle/MP3 player

small toys like matchbox cars or the girly equivilent

card games

candy

camera

gift certificates (pedicure for the girls)

puzzles

movie tickets

travel games

 

If there was something big that the child wanted, those gifts could always be opened at home before or after the trip - I like after 'cause it is something fun for them to look forward to and might get overlooked with the excitement of the trip.

 

Hope you have a great time!

[Country_Gal]

My sister came up with a great idea last Christmas. She took pictures of the presents waiting at home and wrapped the pictures to be opened in mexico. Not so great for really young ones, but fun for tweens and teens. They knew what was waiting at home. For my 4 year old grandson I explained to him that Santa was going to come to our house while we were gone so we would have "real" Christmas when we got home. He was so excited on the trip home.