Holiday lights over the Graben, Vienna. Photo: majaiva/iStock
In John Grisham's novel Skipping Christmas, and later the film Christmas with the Kranks, Luther and Nora Krank's only daughter leaves to spend a year abroad. With the house empty, they decide to skip the holiday altogether and book a Caribbean cruise instead.
Bad move. The neighbors are outraged. Then, on Christmas Eve, their daughter announces she's coming home after all, and the Kranks scramble to throw the party they swore off. Luther ends up giving away the cruise tickets.
The story treats it as a choice between the holiday and the trip, and the holiday wins.
For many of us, being home for the year-end holidays is a deep tradition. However, more people are now trying something else. They travel over the holidays to see another culture celebrate. Some go on their own, some as a couple, and some bring the family along for a very different kind of family holiday.
Last year, in Deloitte's holiday travel survey, baby boomers were the only generation planning to spend more on holiday travel. The pattern shows up well beyond the US. In Japan, trips abroad over the New Year holiday were expected to rise by nearly a third last season, and Britain's aviation regulator expected its busiest Christmas travel period on record.
The Open Door
Noted anthropologist Victor Turner wrote that festivals sit partly outside a society's normal order. For a few days people set aside their usual roles and meet people they otherwise wouldn't. That makes the holidays a good time to arrive somewhere new, because the door is already open.
Some holiday traditions are built around a stranger at the door. In Mexico, the posadas run for nine nights before Christmas. A procession carrying Mary and Joseph goes house to house asking for shelter, and the first houses turn them away in song. The last one lets everyone in, and the party starts.
You can find the open door almost anywhere. In Santa Fe, Canyon Road is lined with paper lanterns and small piñon fires on Christmas Eve. On the Mississippi levee in Louisiana, more than a hundred bonfires are lit the same night to guide Papa Noël. In Edinburgh, a torchlight procession winds through the Old Town on December 29. In Kyoto, at temples such as Nanzen-ji, visitors can line up to ring the bell as midnight approaches on New Year's Eve.
The Rosca
On January 6, Mexican families share the rosca de reyes, a ring of sweet bread for the Three Kings. A small figure of the baby Jesus is baked inside. Whoever finds it has to host a tamales party on February 2, and a guest who finds it is on the hook like everyone else. If you win, it's a perfect excuse to go back.
The Price Tag
There are two costs, and the first is the tradition. Someone at home will notice the empty chairs at the table.
The second is money. Holiday travel often costs more, and this year looks steep. Hopper expects Christmas airfares in the US to average 23 percent more than last year, and hotels 18 percent more.
For years, we've headed to San Miguel de Allende right after Christmas. It gives us the best of both worlds: the holiday at home with our extended family, then a larger one over New Year's with our chosen family in Mexico. A long dinner with friends on New Year's Eve, then the main square at midnight.
