The Things I Love Most

Tips To Enjoying Life With Your Family

Tips on How to Prepare for a Great Holiday Road Trip

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First off have a really nice car like this so you don’t have car problems 🙂 Ok that’s not really one of my tips, but it would be nice!! 
Are any of you traveling this holiday season?  Do you even like to travel in the winter?  Call me crazy, but  I do.  I actually love grabbing my blanket and pillow and sleeping the whole way (4+ hours) to visit our family.  But in order to do that I need to make sure my car is prepared for my kids so that I don’t hear fighting, or “how much longer” or “I’m bored” or “I have to go to the bathroom” 100 times during the ride.  We have made this trip 100 times, and I think we have holiday travel down to a science.  See look how happy our kids are to be in the car….
The only problem for traveling over the holidays is weather.  Make sure the weather is going to be good or else you will turn in to a stressed out back seat driver and you and your husband will be on each others nerves the whole drive. 
Here are some things we do to make our Holiday travel nice for everyone {and so that I can sleep}…
  • A Movie – We didn’t have this when we were kids, but we let our kids watch one show they all agree on as part of our trip…It’s a lovely time!
  • A Snack bag for each kid with Small Water Bottle– we are really big on not stopping and getting food or going to the bathroom.  We usually have one pit stop, but we have found if our kids are drinking a lot then they do the obvious and have to “go” a lot, so we have X-nayed liquids while we travel except for a small water bottle for each kid. 
  • Pillow & Blanket – I don’t really need to explain this one, it is always nice to have sleeping kids in the car!
  • Back part of the carseat – Let me explain….if your kids are in booster seats and you have taken the back part off, put it back on so they can have a place to rest their weary heads! 🙂
  • Space – I hate a cluttered car where there is stuff all over the floor and when your kids get our for a pit stop the step on everything.  My floors have to be nice and clean.   We don’t put luggage or anything in the main part of the car.  (That is why I LOVE my stow-and-go)
  • The Perfect Seating Arrangement – This is huge!  If you have two children that always like to pester each other in the car, don’t let them sit by each other.  Also have one of the older children sit by the younger child or baby so they can help them be happy, hand them toys and get the binki for them when they drop it on the floor. 
  • Activity Box – Leap Pad, Games, Coloring Book, or Reading book – This does sit on the floor, but in an organized box for the older child to pass things around to the other kids. 
  • Good Audio Book for Driver – Especially if he/she is driving in the dark.  My husband downloads it to his Ipod so that if the kids are watching a movie he can stay awake by listening to a good book!
  • Snacks for driver only – This was added by my husband.  He has to have cookies, and other snack foods to snack on while he drives.  The key is that the kids don’t know about it so he doesn’t have to pass them around!  He is selfish that way 🙂
  • Good Music or singing – If it is night have peaceful quiet music playing, if it is day and everyone is up have fun music to sing-a-long to!
  • Plan the trip / map it out – Make sure your trip is mapped out and you know where you are going either by GPS on your phone or GPS system.  Or a good old map!
  • Pray – we always say a prayer before we drive away on a trip to be safe and protected. 
I promise if you follow these tips, your trip will be just as peaceful as this picture…
And your kids will be super happy!
I would love to add to my list by hearing some of your Holiday Travel tips!
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Comments

  1. I love all your tips! I never really thought about having the back of the car seat. I will definitely have to do that next time. I will usually pack a small cooler with snacks for the kids and leave it right in the middle, so it is easy to reach for any of us. As far as keeping them occupied, I take my iPad with me. They can do so much on it, such as play games, read, watch a movie, and watch TV. I love that they can watch TV with the Sling Adapter hooked up to my receiver. My co-worker from DISH told me about this product and with the DISH remote Access app they can watch all their favorite shows live. I can set a time limit on this since shows are usually thirty minutes.