RV FEATURE
Many families hit the road at Christmas, either to
begin their laps around Australia or just to visit
favourite holiday spot. Others, like us, live on the
road full time. But no matter what situation you
are in, there is something special about spending
Christmas in a caravan park, in a free camp or
even in a friend’s driveway.
We are about to spend our third Christmas on
the road, and this one will be just as exciting as
the others. Yet all three will have been completely
different. We never planned it to turn out this
way, and we are still just winging it.
A TASSIE CHRISTMAS
Our first Christmas on the road was spent with
family, pulled up in their driveway. Our second
Christmas was spent with a large group of friends,
many who don’t have a tight-knit family or who
could not spend Christmas with extended family
due to work commitments. We stayed at a friend’s
caravan park, enjoying a few days together.
This year, we are spending it in Tasmania, a place
where we thought we would have a small family
Christmas with just the four of us and anyone in
the campground where we chose to spend the
night. Well, how things change, thanks to the
lovely people you meet on the road.
We are now going to spend it with a couple we
met on the road this year. After helping them
with their camper trailer awning in high winds,
and sharing a roast lamb dinner that night, they
found out that we were going to wing it in Tassie
for Christmas, so they invited us to spend it with
them.
The kids get to decorate the caravan with
Christmas lights and decorate a gumtree branch
for a tree. It makes our van feel like Christmas,
and gets us into the festive spirit. We are the
family who, when we lived in a house, had the
Christmas light decorations to rival any award-
winning neighbourhood display, and boy do we
miss our decorations.
PRESENTS: LESS IS MORE
The biggest thing we have found, where Christmas
is concerned, is that less is more when it comes to
presents. The kids understand that it is not about
the mounds of gifts but the thought that goes into
them.
We spend time with the kids, chatting about
what would be a great gift for the other. We do
individual shopping trips and the kids pick a gift
for each other. It is always an interesting exercise,
because even though we have spent a full year
living in the caravan with the kids, they seem to
have a better insight into each other than we ever
will.
We make the effort to visit our parents, the
kids’ grandparents, before Christmas, and this
year it involved a couple of quick trips, without
the van attached, to ensure we got time in with
our families and friends. While we are creating
memories within our own small family unit, it is
still important to make memories with our loved
ones as well.
So, no matter how you are spending your
Christmas, we hope you make some awesome
memories, stay safe and have a very merry
Christmas.
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