This Year, Give the Trip Instead of the Stuff

Every year, the pile of gifts under the tree gets bigger and the memories from them get shorter. A trip does the opposite. The details stay fresh for years, the same way a beach reunion or a first family trip abroad still comes up at dinner a decade later.

Even rainy days create lifelong memories

The older the children and grandchildren get, the harder it becomes to get everyone in the same room at the same time. Schedules split apart, distance grows, and "we should all get together" turns into something people say more than they do. A trip is one of the few gifts that actually forces that to happen. Stepping outside daily routines strips away work emails, chores, and the noise of separate households, and puts everyone in the same place with nothing to do but be there.

That's also where the stories come from. Nobody remembers the toy that got put away in a drawer. They remember the grill catching fire at the beach house, or the whole family falling over trying to paddleboard for the first time. Those moments become part of a family's permanent folklore: the story that gets retold at the next holiday, and the one after that.

A trip like this also gives grandparents, parents, and children a chance to rediscover each other as people, not just as their roles at home. It won't be perfect for everyone. Someone will want to sleep in, someone will want an early hike, and someone will complain about the wifi. Planned well, the time together is what people remember, not the parts that didn't go smoothly.

Over the next few weeks, I'll walk through three ways to structure that kind of trip: a shared beach house, an all-inclusive cruise, and a mountain cabin retreat. Each one gets its own post, so you can see which shape actually fits your family this year.

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Best,

Colleen (she/her), CTP