Christmas Day Away From Extended Family

Just Our Family For Christmas

christmas day

If I could do anything for Christmas this year (or every year for that matter) it would be load the family up on a plane and fly to the Gold Coast to spend the holidays with my Grandma, Aunts, Uncles, and Cousins. But unfortunately four return flights at that time of a year are simply impossible.

So we’ll be having another Christmas with just our immediate family – plus my mum, and possibly a friend who’ll be unable to get home to her family for Christmas this year so we’re happy to adopt her.

What’s Christmas Without Family

But I do miss that dynamic of spending the day with the big extended family. With children running everywhere, piles of presents for the whole family, having a quiet drink with my cousins, and just catching up with family members I don’t see often. Not to mention eating more food than should be humanly possible.

It doesn’t seem worth roasting up 3 different types of meat when there’s just going to be five or six of us, two of whom are children who may or may not actually eat roast meat anyway.

It’s just not the same without them all.

Making The Most Of It

We will still have a lovely day. And the kids are excited regardless of who will be there. Because Santa and presents. We put up our Christmas tree and started blasting Christmas carols around the clock in November – so we definitely get into the Christmas spirit! Even if it’ll just be us!

We’l still have at least one roast, plenty of prawns, and a good bottle bubbly to celebrate the day. It’s still a special event. Even if we’ll be missing our families.

Getting Out Into The Community

Even if we don’t have anyone to spend Christmas Day with, we can still go to local events. Like Christmas Carols in the park near our house.

On Christmas Day we usually go for a walk after lunch. Staying home all day just us starts to feel a bit isolated. When we go out there’s usually other families around doing the same thing – test riding new bikes and scooters, or just trying to walk off Christmas dinner to make some room for dessert.

It helps to feel like we are still part of a wider community, even if our family is a bit of an island at Christmas.

Thank Goodness For The Internet

Also at some point during the day we’ll video call our families and that way we do feel like we’ve connected with everyone. It’s bittersweet getting to see that they’re all together, but at least for that moment we get to feel like we’re part of it.

Finally this is my absolute favourite Christmas song – in is everything I feel about Christmas – even though it makes a me little sad that I won’t be drinking white wine in the sun with my brother, Dad or my Gran – but at least I will be drinking white wine in the sun… so at least that counts for something.

 

Do you spend christmas with just your own family? What do you do to make it feel more special?

Rachel Stewart

Rachel is the founder of Parenting Central. She is raising two children, boy and girl, with her partner. Rachel is obsessed prams, car seats, carriers and all things baby. She has worked in the baby industry for several years, for both suppliers and also in a retail setting and has developed a passion for connecting parents with the right products to make their lives easier. When Rachel isn't playing with prams she's enjoys crocheting, drinking coffee (sometimes wine) and spending a little too much time on Facebook.

8 Comments

  1. Still haven’t organised Xmas day yet! No plans, no groceries, nothing! All I know is I will be eating copious amounts of food and be merry on wine! And will Skype my family in NZ and cry because I miss them ( just like every year ??)

  2. My extended family are in europe
    And apparently this weekend is the annual roast goose meal and I’m so gutted I’m missing it 🙁 even though I prefer my Christmases hot, with prawns 😛

  3. Christmas at home for us this year too, and our first Christmas with out my great grandmother. so it will be a bit of a sad one. but my grandparents have decided that if we can’t go to them this year, they will come to us so we are not totally alone, so it will be great to have them staying with us for a few days, and will make the over cooking a little less rediculous…..maybe…. lol

  4. Most of christmas day (through my own choice) i’ll be on my own. Preparing traditional Christmas Turkey dinner for my son, daughter-in-law and two adorable grandchildren ( 3yrs & 9months) and my daughter and her fiance who will all come to my house around 4.00pm. Gifts will be given out and then we all sit down to a yummy dinner, xmas pud and champagne. I’d give a lot to be in England with my darling mum.

  5. We normally have the most fabulous Christmas lunch with my in-laws, but my husband won’t even get to see his parents this Christmas or the kids their grandparents, because my husband’s brother and his wife decided to book for themselves and the parents to go away for Christmas day. I’m so sad and so mad!

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