Xmas Cruising?

[Happy ks]

We're going on our third Christmas cruise this year, we love it and would go every year if we could.

 

The first time we took Christmas decorations, the second time left them home and will do so again this year. The ship has lovely decorations and we find the cabins are just too darned small to clutter up. Seeing the door decorations is fun, but I would'nt bother.

 

We open gifts before leaving home (the kids) and just take their stockings for Christmas morning. It's been a fun, festive week and one of my favorite parts is dressing up every night for dinner. Christmas cruisers (so far) have seemed dressier to me than at other times of the year.

 

The level of stress over the holiday is nil and the time you get to spend together is priceless. We do go with family members, those who won't go we don't particularly miss much, we just see them the week before instead.

[mousey]

Because my DH's family lives in upstate New York, my family lives in Florida, and the DH and I live in California, we have almost always been away from home for Christmas. Our DS (now 14) has spent most of his Christmas holidays between NY and FL, and loves it. That is his tradition. He loves it when he gets to see his grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins, and gets a ton of gifts and love heaped on him. My BIL recently passed away, and my SIL wanted to go to their timeshare in Cabo for Christmas. We had a wonderful time. It was a little sad, not having our beloved husband, uncle, and BIL with us, but we had fun in memory of his love for Cabo.

 

A few gift suggestions that don't take up lots of room are gift cards to favorite clothing stores, and restaurants. Gift cards to the movies are fun also. I know my DS loves to get gift cards to IHop, Pizza Hut, Outback, Tilly's (a teen oriented clothing store), Lids (a hat store in the mall). Starbucks and Best Buy are other places he loves to get gift cards for. We also get a couple of rolls of quarters from the bank (for use in the game arcade) and put them, along with the gift cards and some of his favorite food treats, in a Christmas stocking. It can be placed on their beds on Christmas Eve no matter where or how you travel. Our DS has never felt deprived of anything when we have traveled for the holidays. For years we have alternated Christmas and Thanksgiving between NY and FL. This Thanksgiving we will be going to Cabo with the DH's sister (as his parents are unfortunately no longer with us), and to FL to spend Christmas with my family. As long as you are all together you will have fun no matter where you are.:D

 

As for decorations, the 99 Cents store has tons of wall decorations that would be easy to pack, and Christmas stockings are also easy to pack. I hope you and your family of a great Christmas no matter where or how you spend it.:D

[eggypann]

I never thought I might like a cruise over Christmas but after reading all these posts I just may give it a try (when the grandkids are just a bit older). I just said to someone the other day that I thought we should celebrate Christmas every other year - it all gets to be just too, too much. And I just hate hearing Christmas songs in October!

 

To all of you doing the holiday cruising - have a wonderful time. Well, you're cruising - what's not to like!!

[teachtocruis]

My dh and I have cruised the last few years at either Christmas or New Year's and loved them all. We are doing it again this year and will cover both days. Really looking forward to that!! Last year I took a small Christmas tree - lights and all and had it set up in our cabin. It added a nice homey Christmas touch to the cabin. I will be bringing the the tree and lights again this year.

We now think that we can't imagine a Christmas not spent at sea.

Kayla