How To Keep The Family Together At Christmas
Here are some great tips to help you keep he family together at Christmas, based on new stats regarding holidaying and family time.
Step 1: The Research
A holiday abroad at Christmas could be just the thing to save your family. That’s the claim being made today. It’s new research that reveals the lack of quality time parents spend with their children. One of the things the survey shows is that nearly 90% of families spend 4 hours a day together during holiday, that’s compared with just 15% at home. So what are the particular advantages of a Christmas holiday?
Step 2: A Family Holiday
I think it’s important to mention here that it’s not just about Christmas holidays, it’s about summer holidays as well. And our research shows that as UK families, we’re spending less than, 1 in 5 of us are spending less than 1 hour together in the week. So holidays are a great opportunity to re-engage as a family.
And the recent UNICEF research backs up what our findings today have shown. In that we may be quite good at talking to our children, but actually we’re pretty poor at spending quality time with them, especially at meal times. And we’re way behind the likes of Italy, France, and Iceland.
Step 3: The Cost
So they are the pros, but what about the cons? Because after all it’s the school break, and surely that means holidays are more expensive and potentially out of the reach of ordinary people.
But demand does increase during school holidays and prices might increase together with that but not prohibitively so. Especially if you’re able to book early when there are lots of deals available like free child places, which are available throughout the year including school holiday days.
Step 4: Finding Space
So we know that open wallet surgery won’t be necessary to go away at Christmas, but although it’s great spending a lot of time with your family, you could all get just a bit fed up with each other.
However, this research published today backs up what we at First Choice have thought all along, and we’ve been creating holidays, particularly family holidays that give families enough space. Space to be together, and space to spend some time apart and relax apart.
So for children on their own, we have kids clubs where they can spend time with Bob the Builder, or crèches with UK trained nannies. And at the same time, adults are actually spending time at their own exclusive areas; in the spa or at the gym.
But coming back to the point of the research, we have also tried to facilitate family time together. And we’ve done this through lads and dads soccer schools, and high reps activities that actually bring the family together in specific activities
Step 5: Top Tips
So there are bounds to be some parent’s ‘umming’ and ‘ahhing’, wondering whether they should be going away this festive season, so what they need are some general Christmas travel tips.
The first thing I would say therefore is don’t fear long haul. There are some great further flung destinations that offer some great holiday opportunities for families. Particularly destinations like Mexico. And what we’ve done over the last few years is made flying easy for families with more leg room for everybody, seat-back entertainment so the kids can watch their own movies or play their own games, and dedicated kids meals.
And secondly I would say book an inclusive holiday. Go somewhere with someone where you know you’re going to get looked after.
So if you do feel the need to bring your family just a little bit closer together, if all you have to do is grab a bucket and a spade and head for some winter sun, it’s just some research well worth following.
