I started feeling the pressure around Thanksgiving. We knew that Christmas would be in the Houston area, but what about before that? We weren’t even going to get there until December was two-thirds over. Christmas celebration in our family goes into full-swing the day after Thanksgiving. That’s almost a month of on-the-road-not-in-the-same-place-for-more-than-three-nights celebrating to get the kids (and us) psyched for the Best Christmas Ever. I had to get creative. Enter Pinterest, some awesome ideas from blogging friends of mine, and a little of my own brilliance.

We picked 2 everyday traditions that looked fun, and then filled in some easy and simple decorating. We had an Elf on the Shelf (purchased back in Virginia at Costco), but let’s face it: He stayed in the box and got returned the day we arrived in Houston. I just couldn’t do it. Not enough creativity or nooks and crannies to hide him in where he couldn’t be touched. That was too much for my poor little brain to handle so he got shoved in a storage compartment until we reached the next Costco and could be returned.

Despite a few setbacks, I feel like we did great. More than that, I feel like our kids were not disappointed, feeling left out, or missing home. That was really important to me because if we have our way, we won’t be in a house next year for Christmas either. We needed to set a precedent.

So, here’s our list of 6 Easy Christmas Traditions You Can Do While Traveling in an Airstream (in no particular order):

1. Christmas Lights:  Easy to put up using, you guessed it, Command Hooks. They make little clear ones that work great for holding lights. For some reason, however, there were certain spots on the walls they wouldn’t stay so we stuck them mostly to cupboards and other non-aluminum surfaces. We LOVE that the light bounces off and reflects on the shiny interior. The effect is magical.

2. Visit Santa: This was kind of a happy accident, but can definitely be planned for. We were driving to Henderson State Park in Florida and saw a billboard advertising Santa’s Wonderland at Bass Pro Shops. Since the state park is situated right on the main drag (but tucked in nicely, its amazing how they worked that out) it was a 10 minute drive to go over there. They had it all set up with a cottage, elves, reindeer, crafts for the kids to do, guns to shoot and lots and lots of candy canes. My kids were super excited!

3. Christmas Stockings: I bought .99 stockings from Wal-Mart with the idea that we’d glitter-fy them as a family night activity. I hate glitter, but the Glitter Glue only came in neon so I held my breath and bought it anyway. The kids absolutely adored the activity and had crazy amounts of fun, and I had an anxiety attack. Next time I will do myself a favor and either just purchase the glitter glue or make my kids use the picnic table outside even if it is only 40 degrees. And yes, I totally helped Cara. Pro tip: After the glue dries, spray down the glitter with hair spray.You still get glitter everywhere, but it definitely helped reduce the amount.

4.  Christmas Activity Advent Calendar I picked this up on Instagram from an awesome photographer/blogger friend of mine. Hers is WAY cuter though. She does have the advantage of a printer, and you know, space for a cute little tree, but we did our best. My kids helped write the numbers and then I came up with the activities. We started a few days late and missed a few in between, but for the most part we had fun. The idea is to have an experience or a fun family activity each day leading up to Christmas. They don’t have to be big – something as small as reading an extra story, or making Santa beards out of shaving cream in the bathtub work quite nicely (if we had a bathtub that would’ve been on our list).

The Curren Family Advent Activities

• Learn about Christmas traditions in other countries.
• Write letters to Santa (this got replaced with actually going to SEE Santa. Much better).
• Create snowman chalk on the driveway.
• Make paper snowflakes and hang them.
• Write a holiday note and place $5 on a stranger’s car (this was probably their favorite).
• Make fudge!
• Deliver a fun treat to the neighbors.
• Celebration of the Oaks in New Orleans.
• Read 2 Christmas Stories.
• Pizza & Christmas movie night.
• Make gingerbread/graham crackers houses.
• Buy & decorate a Christmas tree.
• Read/act out the nativity.

5. Paper Snowflakes: Two for one. We used it as one of our advent activities and then they hung all over the Airstream for decorations.

6. Open and read a story every day leading up to Christmas. We kind of started this one last year, but I think I only ended up purchasing 3 or 4 books. Before we left Virginia I made a trip to 2nd & Charles and walked away with $70 worth of used books. They had a an entire table dedicated to a selection of Christmas books and I just couldn’t resist. What amazed me is that we loved every single book we read with very little pre-screening on my part. Here’s our list of books:

• The Penguin Who Wanted to Be Different by Maria O’Neill
• The Berenstain Bears Trim the Tree by Jan & Mike Berenstain
• Rudolf The Red-Nosed Reindeer (Little Golden Book)
• Rudolph’s Bright Christmas (A Golden Book)
• Santa’s New Jet by David Biedrzycki
• Merry Un-Christmas by Mike Reiss
• Snowmen at Christmas by Caralyn Buehner
• I’ve Seen Santa by David Bedford
• The Biggest Snowman Ever by Steven Kroll
• Hurry, Santa! by Julie Sykes & Tim Warnes
• A Christmas Carol retold by Gaby Goldsack
• Russell’s Christmas Magic by Rob Scotton
• Santa Kid by James Patterson
• SnowPlace like Home! The Incredible Snowkids of Marshmallow Mountain by Diana Manning
• Toot & Puddle I’ll Be Home for Christmas by Holly Hobbie
• The Snowbelly Family of Chillyville Inn by Cheryl Hawkinson

You’ll notice there’s only 16, but it was definitely enough since some days we forgot, or other days we had an early traveling day. We liked reading these in bed first thing in the morning, as we already had plenty to do right before bedtime (PJ’s, scriptures, teeth, etc.).

We had a great time leading up to Christmas. Though our activities were small and didn’t take much time, it really led us into the Christmas spirit. The kids were excited, and we were able to pull these off as we traveled across 3 states to our Christmas destination. It was a perfect way to tie everything together.