5 Reasons Why You Should Go on Vacation for the Holidays: Thanksgiving, Christmas, even New Years!

Money saved, vacation on the way.

It's that easy.

Welcome to Grit, Grace, and Inspiration.

I'm your host, Kevin Lowe, and I'm excited to welcome you inside.

This is the kind of place where your glass will never be anything other than half full because we choose to focus on the positive side of life.

Now, this doesn't mean that we shy away from the real talk.

No, not a chance.

Matter of fact, we explore all aspects of life.

From the good, the bad, and the ugly.

But all of that is done with one purpose.

unknown: One purpose.

SPEAKER_00: To inspire you to never give up on life.

Even when it may seem like life has given up on you.

Now I get it, life is hard.

But starting today, you've got grit, grace, and inspiration.

What's going on and welcome back to the podcast?

I'm your host, Kevin Lowe, and today is episode 138.

If listening to today's episode in real time, then you know that Thanksgiving is fast approaching.

It's on everybody's mind, the holiday season.

And well, today, I'm here to mix it up a little bit by giving you something else to think about.

Now, I will admit that I am a boy who loves tradition.

I love being at my nanas for Thanksgiving dinner.

I love to be over at her house before Thanksgiving, helping out, or well, in my case, just kind of there as moral support with the Macy's Day parade on TV, hanging out, enjoying the experience.

But even me, who loves a little tradition, every once in a while, you gotta mix it up.

Because after all, variety is the spice of life.

So, how shall we spice up the holiday season?

Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year's, make it something different, something memorable.

Well, why not consider a vacation as part of those holiday plans?

Say, what?

Kevin, are you out of your mind?

Travel over the holidays?

Why am I going on vacation?

I'm going to my family's house like I always do.

Well, if that's good with you, then awesome.

But if you're kind of thinking to yourself, man, I would really love to get out of the family parties, the business Christmas party, the casserole that I always have to make that everybody loves, but I'm kind of tired of making it.

If you want an excuse, baby, well, you just found your excuse because it's kind of hard to do all of that if you're on vacation.

Get where I'm going with it?

Ha! I thought I'd have your attention.

Before I dive into that, I do want to remind you, all of my coaching services as a life and business coach are on sale for the holiday season at an exclusive 50% off.

So if you're somebody feeling stuck in your life, like you could use a breakthrough, somebody to talk to, somebody to work with you through your problems, well, you might want to check out today's show notes to find out more into this holiday special that I'm talking about, where you can work with me for a fraction of the price that it normally is.

Like I said, it's the holiday special where I'm offering my coaching packages to you at 50% off.

All you have to do is send me an email, or better yet, just scroll down and check out today's show notes where you can find a link that will take you to the contact page of my website to reach out to me for more information.

With that being said, it's my pleasure to give you an excuse as to why you can't make Thanksgiving dinner this year.

Or Christmas dinner for that matter.

Or the annoying Christmas party.

All thanks to me.

You can thank me at the end.

Here's today's episode.

All right.

So I make a big claim like that.

I better back it up with some reasons why I'm telling you to consider a vacation over the holidays.

And well, I got five of them here for you.

Number one, the cleaning, the cooking, the cleaning.

Yes, you get out of all of it.

Because what better way to get out of all the things that you hate about the holiday season than a get out of jail free card?

What is that card?

Simple.

Sorry, I'll be on vacation.

No cleaning and decorating the house needed.

You're not going to be home to enjoy it, so why mess with it?

The cooking, the expense of all the food, you don't gotta worry about it because you're not gonna be home to have to do it.

The point here is if you're tired of having to do everything at the holidays, if you're kind of the person feeling like everything gets put on your shoulders, well, here's a perfect excuse.

Go on vacation, do something for yourself and enjoy the holidays without all of the work, without all of the cleaning, the cooking, the fuss, the mess, it's all gone when you get away.

Number two, oh the money you'll save.

Because you may be thinking, yeah, Kevin, well, this is great, but going on vacation over the holidays, that costs money.

Well, you know what else costs money?

The holidays spent at home.

Because chances are, has the Christmas list that you buy presents for gotten a bit out of hand?

It's family, it's friends, it's coworkers, it's the dog walker, it's somebody everywhere who you have made yourself feel like you have to buy presents for.

But that's okay because you go into the Christmas season with a budget.

Well, when's the last time that you stayed within that budget?

Because chances are, if you're like everyone else, you've exceeded your budget and you come away after Christmas with a credit card bill that you never intended to have.

Now, the money is just one aspect.

What about the time and the effort spent in the shopping?

All that time spent shopping, standing in line, trying to determine is this the good fit or not?

Are they gonna like this or not?

The stress of buying presents, OMG.

And every time you tell yourself, there's no way I'm going to do this again next year.

And yet next year comes, this year happens, and you're doing the same thing.

Well, if you're not gonna be home, then there's no sense in any of that.

That annoying gift exchange at work, ha, you'll be gone.

So, no need to worry about that.

What about all those annoying Christmas parties?

Well, you're not gonna be home.

Sorry, I'll be on vacation.

Now, here's what you're thinking.

But that doesn't mean that people still don't expect me to buy gifts because I can give them the gifts before I go away or after I go away.

Well, maybe so.

But you've got a vacation that you're saving for.

Now, here's the way you work it, because I'm gonna give you the scenario.

You don't act like you're enthused about this vacation at all.

You put it to your friends, your colleagues, whoever it is who you generally buy gifts for.

Oh, my family, they've decided we got to do a vacation this year.

So now we just all the money that we normally spend on the holidays, we're just trying to save it to spend on this stupid vacation that I just I don't even want to go on in the first place.

But uh, I guess it will be okay.

You spin around, give yourself a little fist bump.

Ooh, yeah.

Money saved, vacation on the way.

It's that easy.

Number three.

Are you a family who have family members scattered out across the country or the world?

And it seems like anymore the holidays are no longer a reason for people to come home.

And you sometimes just kind of wish it could be like it used to be, where the whole family got together, where the kids all came home, where everybody had a good time.

But for some reason, Christmas or Thanksgiving just isn't so appealing anymore for them to make the trip home.

Well, tell them that this year you're going on vacation.

Do you want to come?

Chances are you're going to at least spark their attention enough to give them the consideration.

So I say find a central location where it would be easy for people to get together, or just give them something so amazing that they can't say no.

Maybe you guys go on a Christmas cruise.

I guarantee you the kids are going to fly home for a cruise.

Number four.

Now, this one only works if you don't have young children.

Because what this number four reason why you should consider traveling over the holidays, especially talking about Christmas in terms of giving gifts, is that there's a lot of us who we honestly don't need anything.

Maybe there's a few things we want, but we're not going to ask people to buy it for us.

Instead, we go out and buy it whenever we want it.

So the holidays, so Christmas in particular, can get a little bit tricky because people want to know what do you want?

What can we buy you?

And nobody really knows because nobody really needs anything.

Well, consider gifting an experience rather than an actual gift.

Now, like I said, this works if everybody is grown, but don't try this if you have little kids.

What I'm talking about is the experience being the vacation.

Instead of everybody spending money on gift cards that get forgotten about, toys and other gadgets that we all want that get forgotten about after two weeks, instead have everybody chip in on a vacation.

Or even if you can't do a full-blown vacation, maybe it's just an experience at home.

Something out of the norm, something different, something unique, something memorable.

And that's honestly the most important thing about this whole idea in the first place is I want to make the holidays something you'll remember.

I guarantee you, if you didn't do something out of the norm, like what I'm talking about last year, you probably don't remember the holidays at all because it all just blends in together.

What I'm talking about with this whole idea is to make it so that they are memorable, to give you memories that last forever.

Because I'm here to tell you that at the end of the day, it's the time spent with those that we love, experiencing the world.

That's what means the most.

And I believe in times like the holidays, this is a really special time to make that reality.

So spend time with your family doing stuff that is going to last forever.

As I said, memories are forever.

My fifth and final reason to have you hopefully at least thinking about this crazy radical idea of going on a vacation during the holidays is to experience the holidays in another part of the world.

It's one thing for us to get to drive around and look at the Christmas lights or go to the different attractions happening in our own town for Christmas, for the holidays.

But it's a whole other thing to experience it in another part of the world.

Or let's not even say another part of the world.

Let's say going on a cruise over Christmas.

Woo! Something totally out of the norm.

Most people aren't thinking of that.

If they are thinking of traveling, they're thinking of going somewhere up north in the mountains where it will snow.

And yeah, I agree.

That would be awesome.

But maybe it would be easier, cheaper for your family all to go on a cruise.

The whole point in this episode is to hopefully start opening your mind to new opportunities, to new possibilities, to have you rethinking the norm, to have you thinking about adding a little bit of spice to your life.

I don't want the holidays to become just another thing, just another year.

Time is precious.

Moments are even more precious.

And the time spent with the people we love is absolutely priceless.

I just want to give you the opportunity to make that time truly count.

So now it's time for you to take action.

It's time for you to consider is this something we could do?

Is this something I want to do?

If so, well, then it's time to rally up the family and call your favorite travel agent to start planning your vacation today.

Now, if you need help in planning that vacation and you don't already have a travel agent that you know and work with, well, reach out to me.

My contact information is in the show notes.

Because as I used to be a travel agent, you better bet I know a handful who I would be glad to recommend to you.

With that said, get out there, enjoy the day every day, and maybe that's with a vacation on the way.

Hey, real quick before you go, I have one last thought to leave you with.

I of course hope that you've enjoyed today's episode, but more importantly, I want to remind you that I never want you to listen to an episode of this podcast to hear something that I have to say or that my guest has to share and think, wow, I wish I could be like them.

I wish I could overcome my own challenges and do the great things that they are doing, but I just can't.

Well, friend, that's where you're wrong.

unknown: You're wrong.

SPEAKER_00: You are capable.

You are able, and you darn sure are deserving of having all that you can imagine in this life.

There's nothing special about me or any guests I have on this podcast.

We are all just normal people trying to make it in this life.

And so I encourage you to take a look at yourself in the mirror and remind yourself that you know what?

I can do it too.

Now, of course, if you would like help along that way, reach out to me.

Whether that's as a listener of this podcast, a friend, or if you'd like to work with me as a coach.

My contact information is inside of every episode's show notes, just like this one.

So go down, check out my contact information, and reach out to me today.

With that said, I encourage you to take on the day every day with grit, grace, and inspiration.