Family Travel Tip: A Fun Way Keep Vacation Memories Alive

When you come home from vacation, it’s easy to get swept up in a vortex of catching up — be it work, school, daily chores or whatever projects were neglected while you were away. It’s not hard to let the vacation you just took to slip away into the ether, devoured by more pressing emails and driving kids to and fro and sitting in traffic as the daily grind kicks in. However, we recently discovered a fun way to keep the vacation memories alive. 

On a trip Germany, France, and Switzerland to experience Europe’s Christmas markets we bought so many things that we decided to mail some back. This had an unintended consequence. 

When the package, which traveled very slowly from Munich, arrived this morning, we were able to relive all of our adventures through the memories that we shipped and it was a great reminder of not only our vacation but why we love traveling in general. We spent time remembering each little thing — a snow globe from the Eiffel Tower in Paris, cute little gnomes that we found at a market in Munich, postcards and so on. It was a great way to escape from reality and return for a few moments to our time away.

This will now be a practice that we try to do on our other journeys. If it’s something that you would like to put into practice, here are some tips: 

Send things that you won’t miss too much if they never show up. We put in bulky items that we didn’t want to carry back with us and some items that we didn’t actually need so that we could save room in our suitcases for more items that we wanted to buy and bring back (keep in mind this was a shopping trip). Anything of incredible value — both sentimental and monetary — we did not ship. 

Make sure you pack the items well. We bought a roll of bubble wrap and filled the box generously to keep some breakable items safe. While there was extra bubble wrap, we ended up using it for other things that we brought back, but on any other trip, we probably would have ended up giving it away. 

Be patient. If you ship a box as freight or ground, don’t expect your items to arrive overnight. The whole point is to have a reminder after a couple of weeks when you are home, of the fun you had on the trip. 

You don’t have to ship a package. If you believe there’s nothing that you want to send back to yourself, send something small like a letter or a postcard that represents a favorite memory or activity. Anything to rekindle the magic is a fun way to keep the spirit of adventure alive and well in the family — and if you are like us, it will remind you that now is the time to plan that next vacation.