Christmas Traditions I’m Going To Miss This Year While Travelling

Last Updated on 7th July 2023

Rockefeller Tree in New York at Christmas

This Christmas is going to be remarkably strange for me as it’ll be the first time in my entire life that I’ll be away from my family; and therefore all my favourite Christmas traditions.

Matt and I will be spending our Christmas holidays in Singapore and by the time the festivities properly arrive, we’ll have been travelling full time for 8 months! Eight months is a long time to go without seeing your family and friends anyway, but it does make it that little bit harder when it’s the most magical time of the year.

While it’s obviously not all sad and we’re very aware of just how lucky we are that we get to celebrate Christmas in a completely different country, it doesn’t mean that there won’t be a few things that I’ll miss!

In celebration of new experiences and a different way of enjoying the holidays, I wanted to reminisce and share some of my favourite Christmas traditions that I’ll miss this year while travelling!

Putting the decorations and tree up with my family

This family Christmas tradition usually takes place either on the 1st of December or the first Friday of December and it’s one of my very favourite days of the holidays in the Dickenson household.

My mum gets pretty OCD about having a bauble on every single branch of the Christmas tree, my siblings usually get bored of decorating pretty quickly and my dad usually ends up asleep or trying to watch sports while my mum and I haphazardly finish everything off!

The evening is usually rounded off by watching the first Christmas film of the season and I was so gutted to have missed out on this activity this year!

Going to York Christmas markets – my favourite Christmas traditions

Before we left the UK to start travelling back in April 2019, I’d lived in York for 13 years.

For the last couple of years, I worked and lived in the very city centre of York so I was constantly surrounded by festive cheer from the end of November until the beginning of January.

One of my absolute favourite parts of living in the city centre was walking through the Christmas markets on my way to and from work everyday.

They were always unbelievably crowded, but there’s always such a magical air around them and it’ll be strange not picking up a new bauble from one of the stalls this year (another Christmas tradition that Matt and I had adopted over the last few years).

Eating ALL the Christmas chocolate – best Christmas traditions

Of course, it’s not going to be impossible to get Christmas chocolate while we’re in Singapore but it probably just won’t be the same as being at home, curled up on the sofa in front of a Christmas film and tucking into a box of Orange Matchmakers or a Quality Street or Celebrations tin!

Spending a busy Saturday afternoon doing my Christmas shopping

Despite it having the potential to get very stressful, I actually thoroughly enjoy doing my Christmas shopping every year.

It just feels so nice to purchase gifts for the people that I love that I know they’re really going to enjoy.

However, as we’re travelling on a pretty tight budget and we won’t be at home this Christmas, it just won’t be the same this year! Matt and I aren’t even going to buy each other presents as we simply don’t need anything else (and we barely have the room in our backpacks!).

Putting my own small tree up and reminiscing over my decorations

As well as helping out my family with their Christmas decorations, I always enjoy putting up my own little tree as well; especially last year when it was our first Christmas in our studio apartment together.

Most of my baubles and decorations actually belonged to my late nannan so it feels extra special to me when I’m decorating my tree and it’ll certainly be weird not doing it this year.

Wrapping my Christmas presents while watching the Gavin and Stacey Christmas special

This is another one of my personal favourite Christmas traditions.

Every year without fail, once I’ve purchased all my Christmas presents for everyone, I’ll sit down with a glass of wine or a hot chocolate, put the Gavin and Stacey Christmas special on and wrap all my gifts.

It gets me in such a festive mood and it’s one of my absolute favourite afternoons of the holiday season.

Even though I won’t be able to take part in this tradition this year, I am incredibly excited for the new Gavin and Stacey special to come out on Christmas Day!

Finding a way to transport all my presents around to my family

This isn’t as much of a tradition as it is a struggle but it’s still something I’ll miss this year regardless!

I’m incredibly lucky to have family all over England; my parents and brothers and sister live in Cumbria, my grandma lives in York and my dad, grandparents and another brother and sister live in Doncaster too, as well as plenty more extended family, friends and my godson! This means that I have to navigate transporting all my gifts to everyone every year and while it often poses to be quite a challenge (especially last year when I didn’t have my car anymore!), it’s still so much fun trying to organise it all!

Eating bacon sandwiches on Xmas morning – Christmas traditions

Eating bacon sandwiches and enjoying a hot cup of tea once we’ve all opened our presents on Christmas morning has been a family tradition of ours for as long as I can remember.

While most people tuck into chocolate (or just wait for a feast at dinner!), my family and I love a good bacon sandwich in the morning!

Seeing my siblings’ delighted faces as they open their presents

Naturally when I was younger, I was the one who always had the delighted, beaming smile on my face, but as I’ve got older and started not to receive as many “presents” like I used to, my new favourite thing is to watch all my siblings open their gifts on Christmas morning.

Especially my youngest brother who’s only 7 years old; seeing his face light up on Christmas morning is a sure-fire way to make everyone happy!

Watching a film on Christmas Eve

While we always watch many Christmas films throughout December, we always make sure we watch one as an entire family on Christmas Eve.

Depending on what we’ve watched throughout the month, our movie of choice is usually Elf, The Grinch or the Polar Express. I’m really going to miss this tradition this year.

Going for a walk with my family on Christmas Eve or Day

As well as settling down and watching a film together on Christmas Eve, we always go on a walk in the woods near where we used to live.

However, as my family had recently moved up to Penrith last Christmas, we went for a walk on Christmas Day instead into the forest area at the back of their house.

Getting dressed up on Christmas Day and wearing something red

The festive season is the perfect time of year to wear red (in my opinion!) and I always try to wear something red every single Christmas Day for dinner.

Even if it’s just a red lipstick, I stick to this theme every year and I’m not even sure I’ll be able to keep up this tradition this year as I haven’t even brought a red lipstick with me while travelling!

Eating every single item of food in sight – best Christmas traditions

As well as devouring as much Christmas themed chocolate as humanly possible, I also adore pretty much every single food item around Christmas time.

Whether it’s the actual Christmas dinner complete with all the trimmings, the pâté on toast that I always have as a starter, the many decadent desserts or the Boxing Day buffet filled to the brim of all the most delicious beige food imaginable, food at Christmas time is always a winner.

While I am going to miss the home-cooked aspect (and the M&S specials!) of Christmas food this year, I am excited to see what Singapore holds in store for us!

Going to Twinkle Pike Way with my family or Matt – Christmas traditions

There’s a street in York that’s famous for having the most insane Christmas lights and decorations display in the city.

Almost every house on the street kits their entire house out in eclectic mismatched decorations and the whole street is lit up so brightly.

It’s a family tradition of ours to pay a visit to the street at least once over the holidays and it’s made even more special by the fact that all the houses do it to raise money for a different charity every year.

Check out some of the houses here!

Going to the pantomime with my grandma, siblings and cousins

It seems that no matter how old I get, I still always love going to the local pantomime and watching a festive show with my family.

Usually, my grandma takes my brothers and sister and I, as well as our cousins and my mum usually comes along too.

It’s such a fun way to spend an evening with my family and it never fails to make me laugh!

Going iceskating at Yorkshire’s Winter Wonderland

Ice skating in Central Park rink New York

Hosted at McArthur Glen, or York Designer Outlet as it’s more commonly known, Yorkshire’s Winter Wonderland is another one of my favourite things about Christmas at home.

As well as the ice skating rink that we visit every year, there’s also a Santa’s Grotto and various Christmas themed displays too.

My family have already been twice this year and I really wish I could have gone with them!

Putting a brand new pair of pyjamas on Christmas Day night

Another family Christmas tradition that my parents introduced is buying my siblings and I a new pair of festive pyjamas every year.

Once we’ve spent the day opening and “playing” with our presents, tucking into a hearty Christmas Dinner and eating as much chocolate as we possibly can, we always get snuggled up in our new pyjamas and watch something festive on the TV.

This simple and small, but very significant tradition is going to be sorely missed by me this year.

Spending as much time as possible with all members of my family

Finally, the most important Christmas tradition and the one that I will inevitably miss this most this year is simply spending as much time as possible with my family.

Since going travelling and not seeing my family and friends for almost eight months, I’ve realised more than ever just how insanely important and special they are to me.

It’s going to be weird and quite frankly a bit hard for me to be away from my family this Christmas but I’m also excited to spend it with Matt and see what Singapore has to offer us!

Christmas is all about spending it with the ones you love and even though my mum and dad and everyone else won’t be with me, Matt will, and that will be more than enough knowing that we’re creating some awesome new memories and traditions together!

Related posts:

Pin for later – Christmas traditions I’m going to miss this year

Do you have any special family Christmas traditions? Let me know in the comments or on Twitter @imjustagirl_16.