Christmas somewhere warm sounds like a brilliant idea.
Sunshine. Blue skies. No scraping ice off the car. Perhaps even Christmas lunch outside.
Then Christmas Eve arrives and something feels… slightly wrong.
That’s exactly what happened to Andrew, founder of The Travelling Christmas Tree Company, when he took his children to Crete for Christmas many years ago.
The holiday was wonderful. The weather was considerably better than the average British December. But despite all that sunshine, it simply didn’t feel very Christmassy.
There was no tree. No familiar glow of Christmas lights. None of those little visual cues that tell your brain: yes, Christmas is actually happening.
So on Christmas Eve, Andrew improvised.
He made a Christmas tree from paper and put it on the wall.
It wasn’t elaborate. It certainly wasn’t the finished product we know today. But it did something important.
It made Christmas feel like Christmas again.
That homemade tree eventually became the idea behind The Travelling Christmas Tree, but it also taught us something rather lovely: Christmas isn’t really about where you are. It’s about the traditions, sights, smells and little rituals you take with you.
So, whether you’re spending Christmas in a holiday cottage, visiting family, staying in a hotel or sending a child off to celebrate December in their university accommodation, here are some simple ways to bring the Christmas magic with you.
1. Give the Room a Christmas Focal Point
You don’t necessarily need a traditional tree, but having something recognisably Christmassy instantly changes how a room feels.
That might be a little tabletop tree, a branch decorated with baubles, fairy lights arranged on a wall or, naturally, a wall-hanging Christmas tree.
The original Travelling Christmas Tree was created for exactly this reason: to give a family that familiar Christmas-tree moment when a conventional tree simply wasn’t practical.
Our version hangs against the wall, comes with its lights already fitted and folds away afterwards, making it particularly useful for Christmas trips, holiday accommodation and smaller spaces.
SHOP THE TRAVELLING CHRISTMAS TREE
2. Take One or Two Decorations From Home
You don’t need to transport the entire contents of the Christmas cupboard.
Choose a couple of decorations that actually mean something.
Perhaps it’s the slightly battered decoration your child made at nursery. The one bought on a memorable family holiday. Or the slightly questionable Father Christmas that has somehow survived every festive clear-out since 1997.
Familiar decorations carry memories with them.
Hang just a handful and suddenly an unfamiliar room starts to feel a little more like your Christmas.
3. Never Underestimate Fairy Lights
There is no such thing as too many fairy lights at Christmas.
We’re fairly firm on this.
A string of warm lights around a window, across a headboard or along a shelf can transform even the most determinedly non-festive holiday cottage.
Battery-operated lights are particularly handy when you’re away because you’re not dependent on finding a convenient plug socket.
Dim the main lights, switch the fairy lights on and the whole atmosphere changes.
Christmas magic: approximately 30 seconds.
4. Bring the Smell of Christmas With You
Christmas isn’t only visual.
For many of us, it smells like cinnamon, orange, cloves, pine and something delicious baking in the kitchen.
Pack a festive room spray, diffuser or a little bag of dried orange slices and cinnamon sticks. Even making mulled apple juice or warming mince pies can completely change the way somewhere feels.
Just remember to follow the rules of wherever you’re staying — particularly around candles and open flames.
Sometimes all it takes is the smell of cinnamon to convince your brain that Christmas has officially begun.
5. Keep the Countdown Going
For children especially, so much of Christmas happens before 25 December.
It’s the countdown.
Opening the Advent calendar. Asking how many sleeps are left. Watching the pile of presents mysteriously grow. And, importantly, having a perfectly legitimate excuse to eat chocolate before breakfast.
Being away doesn’t mean that tradition has to disappear.
Take an Advent calendar with you or create your own. Our Christmas Countdown Collection turns The Travelling Christmas Tree into a reusable Advent calendar with 24 numbered felt pockets.
Fill them with chocolates, little notes, jokes or tiny gifts and the countdown can carry on wherever you happen to be.
DISCOVER THE CHRISTMAS COUNTDOWN COLLECTION
6. Let the Children Do the Decorating
If you’re travelling with children, give them ownership of part of Christmas.
Let them decorate the tree, arrange the room, make paper decorations or decide where the fairy lights should go.
Will everything be beautifully colour-coordinated?
Possibly not.
Will the children care?
Absolutely not.
The ritual of decorating is often far more important than achieving an immaculate finished result.
The felt decorations on The Travelling Christmas Tree can be moved and rearranged, so children can decorate it themselves — and then redecorate it approximately 14 minutes later if inspiration strikes again.
7. Keep One Family Tradition Exactly the Same
You don’t have to recreate Christmas at home in minute detail.
In fact, trying to transport your entire normal Christmas to another location sounds suspiciously like hard work.
Instead, choose one or two traditions that matter most.
Maybe everyone watches the same film on Christmas Eve.
Perhaps you always have hot chocolate before bed.
You might read the same Christmas story, wear ridiculous pyjamas or have a particular breakfast on Christmas morning.
Keep those anchors.
A different location then becomes part of the adventure rather than something that has replaced your normal Christmas.
8. Take Your Christmas Soundtrack
Never underestimate what happens when the Christmas playlist goes on.
One minute you’re unpacking bags in a perfectly ordinary holiday cottage.
The next, somebody has put on Wham!, someone else is opening the Quality Street and apparently it’s Christmas.
Create your playlist before you leave and bring a small speaker if you need one.
Music is one of the easiest things to take anywhere — and unlike the Christmas tree, it doesn’t take up half the car.
9. Bring Christmas to University
Christmas away from home isn’t always a glamorous holiday.
For students, December can mean being in a small university room, finishing assignments and counting down until they can finally head home.
That’s why we rather love the idea of sending a little bit of Christmas to them.
A Travelling Christmas Tree can be delivered directly to their UK address, ready for them to hang in their room and decorate.
Add a box of chocolates and a note saying “Not long until you’re home”, and you have a rather lovely early Christmas present.
And unlike a traditional artificial tree, they won’t need to work out where on earth to store a giant box beside the laundry basket, textbooks and collection of mugs they’ve mysteriously acquired since September.
10. Accept That Christmas Somewhere Different Will Feel Different
This might be the most important one.
Don’t spend the whole holiday trying to make somewhere else feel exactly like home.
If you’re on a beach on Christmas Day, it is going to feel slightly strange.
Wonderful, perhaps. Memorable, definitely. But strange.
The trick isn’t recreating every detail of your normal Christmas.
It’s bringing enough familiar things with you — lights, decorations, music, food and traditions — to give the new experience its own Christmas magic.
A palm tree may be lovely, but it turns out it does a surprisingly poor impression of a Christmas tree.
Christmas, Wherever You Go
Andrew’s first paper Christmas tree was never really about the tree itself.
It was about creating that feeling for his children.
Years later, that simple Christmas Eve solution has become The Travelling Christmas Tree: a 1.8m wall-hanging tree with pre-fitted lights, reusable decorations and its own storage bag, designed to bring a little Christmas magic wherever December takes you.
Because Christmas doesn’t have to look exactly the same every year.
It just needs to feel like Christmas.