Be Stress-Free When You Travel For December Holidays

Did you travel over the Thanksgiving holiday and come back saying, "Sure, I had a great time with the family, but racing to get back in time for Black Friday shopping was incredibly stressful." Or maybe you're like me and you were a hot mess trying to finish everything at work and doing all of the last-minute packing.

It seems like if we had some missteps over Thanksgiving, we can tweak our holiday travel methods and get it right if we have to go on a trip a month later. Right? Old habits are hard to break, but here are some things you could try.

1. Impose a false deadline. Packing for a trip, at least for me, is one of those tasks that always takes much longer than you anticipate. Rather than staying up way too late packing the night before or packing day of and running late, how about packing the weekend before life revolve you leave? Then on your actual departure day, you can safely budget for a much shorter amount of time to add last minute items to your bag, check that you've got travel documents, etc.

2. Find your ideal travel time. We've figured out that our optimal flying time is later in the afternoon. A flight is going to exhaust us, so we may as well have a glass of wine on the flight, de-stress. We're tired when we get to the destination so then we just collapse. However, we prefer driving in the morning. Wake up, enjoy some coffee and conversation for the road trip. (Yes, our life revolves around coffee and wine).

3. Be a contrarian by traveling on the actual day of the holiday...or by breaking tradition all together. The roads and airports will not be as packed if you travel on Christmas. And maybe create less stress altogether by not traveling at all and make a new tradition in your own home. Invite the gang to come see you!

Roxanne Wilder