Give Your Family a Trip for Christmas

How do you wrap a family vacation and put it under the Christmas tree? Travel is a priceless gift, but presenting it — especially when everyone in the family is the recipient — can challenge your imagination.

Since it’s probably everyone’s “big gift,” you might want to draw out the suspense by giving it in puzzling increments, a series of hints keeping everyone guessing until the final reveal. This can be a series of small gifts that provide hints to a destination or activity, or it could be a series of “gift certificates” for various experiences.

Because a family trip can include different ages and interests, multiple customized gift certificates can build anticipation as they provide hints it’s a trip and then hints to the destination.

If you plan to have several hint gifts for each person, be sure to number them so they progress from the most puzzling to more obvious ones. For example, a trip to Rome might begin with cards promising Smurf gelato or pizza in an outdoor café, then one enclosing a coin to throw in a fountain. A trip to Venice might be “Take a selfie with a lion” or “Go shopping on a bridge” and finally “Ride in a gondola.”

Instead of creating gift certificates you could also do a series of gifts that are hints to the locale, such as suntan lotion or beach toys for a Caribbean vacation. Trips to Orlando could include theme park character toys or clothing. Travel including more than one place give you even more possibilities for clues that can be even more puzzling.

A final suggestion for kids is a book set in the destination. Along with a hint of where they will be going, books give kids a sense of place even before they arrive. Choose books involving local customs and lifestyles, especially those picturing local landmarks, as Ludwig Bemelmans’s Madeline stories do for Paris. For more suggestions of books, see 15 Books to Inspire Kids to Travel.