In the cold winter time, many people are dreaming of lying at tropical beaches and grilling in the heat of the sun, instead of wrapping themselves in thick winter clothes. But the good part of winter is a white Christmas. Christmas without the winter wonderland is almost impossible for me. It just belongs together. The thick layer of snow that is covering the naked trees and the grey of the cold season – it’s just wonderful. You are sitting in your cozy home and drinking a hot chocolate with marshmallows. However, I haven’t had this in ages, because it hasn’t been snowing at Christmas Day in Berlin for a couple of years. So why not just spend a tropical Christmas, right?!
This year is the 2nd time that I am spending my Christmas in tropical weather and the 3rd time without my family. The real Christmas feeling is not quite there without the family and without the coldness or snow. But there are still a lot of benefits for having a tropical Christmas.
8 benefits of celebrating a tropical Christmas
1. Weather & vitamin D
In the end of December, you are halfway through the winter season – Germans literally call it “mountain fest” because you reached the summit and you’re almost done with it. By this time (if not right from the beginning of the winter), lots of people are getting depressed because of the lacking sunshine.
So spending your Christmas holidays helps you with this problem! You can refuel a lot of vitamin D by lying in the sun, going surfing, or whatever you prefer.
Hence, you get through the second part of the winter much better without getting a winter depression.
2. Tropical Christmas is more stress-free
Christmas with the family can be stressful. Don’t get me wrong: I love my family and I love spending time with them. But the Christmas holidays are the most stressful holidays of the year. You have to travel through the country just to spend a few days with your family. I could understand if you are saying now: “But it is Christmas! It has to be with the family.“ Well, I don’t think so. I rather spend more than three days at home without the Christmas chaos. Aren’t other visits throughout the year more appreciated than the Christmas holidays? I know it’s a tradition and that’s the point of doing all this, but most people are complaining about the stress.
So why are we putting ourselves into this stressful time? We could use those days to recharge on the beach instead. We could sit in a restaurant and people serve you food instead of cooking a huge Christmas meal for 10 people.
Just imagine: You could lie under an umbrella on a beach lounger and you don’t have to organize a holiday weekend for the family. Isn’t this already the most amazing benefit of a tropical Christmas??
If not, don’t worry, I’ve got more for you… 😉
3. Start the new year full of energy
The sun and the relaxation of a vacation can work miracles – not only because of the vitamin D.
If you don’t pack your days too full, you will have the perfect start into the new year because you are going to be recharged. So don’t forget: It’s vacation – not a sightseeing marathon!
4. Extraordinary Christmas gifts
Hand-carved wood, paintings, hand-woven baskets, oriental decoration pieces, or just spices, teas or sweets. On a travel, you are always finding so many different interesting gifts. For example, a handcrafted lamp is much better than a pair of socks from Macy’s, am I right?
Therefore, you can also escape the pre-Christmas shopping stress as well with a tropical Christmas because you can just stroll through markets and bazaars to find all the gifts for your family and friends.
5. Using holidays smarter
If the public holidays for Christmas and New Year are before and after the weekends, you can actually get a 2-week vacation without using a lot of your work holidays. So you got more holidays left for traveling throughout the year.
6. Enriched by the experience
It is also just interesting to make the experience in spending a Christmas in a different way.
Maybe you are going to like it, maybe not. But you won’t know it until you tried it once.
You will learn how the concept of Christmas with your own traditions is stuck in your head. When I am abroad I still like to cook a Christmas meal, if I have the opportunity. This year we had made it a little bit untraditional and cooked the fish that we fished in the morning and had rather a barbecue. The good part was that we could dine in front of the beach – so we had a wonderful view in Amed (Bali).
7. Christmas vs. other traditions
Christmas is one of many family traditions. Every family has its own way to celebrate the festive season. Sometimes it is just oriented towards the planned meals, or it is defined by certain activities.
One part is the rite of making gifts. But is this part really so important for adults? For kids it’s different. The gifts are the best part, so it makes Christmas more valuable for them. It’s just the greatest part of the year besides their birthdays. But let’s be honest: What do adults get from Christmas? Do we always need an occasion to make gifts? Isn’t this just a commercial and economical occasion for businesses? Aren’t birthdays enough to make presents? This Christmas gifts tradition is just stuck in our heads so badly that we barely can break free from that.
If you are spending your Christmas holidays somewhere else it is weird at first, because all the traditions are gone. Depending on where you fly to, Christmas might not even be celebrated. Bali, for example, does not celebrate Christmas and that’s a very interesting situation because our holidays are just normal days – just the usual island life.
8. All other benefits of traveling
Traveling enriches on all levels! So you should just use every opportunity to see a new place.
You get in touch with different cultures, rites, and traditions. You learn to be more open and start thinking about your own culture and country more differentiated.
Traveling has a long list of benefits! So a tropical Christmas would be a good way to experience these new things!