How Full-Time RVers Celebrate the Holidays

Last updated on September 22nd, 2023 at 08:35 pm

They say, “It’s the most wonderful time of the year!” I wholeheartedly agree! This year I decided to ask eight other full-time RVing couples and families what their plans are for the season. One theme that resonated throughout was family, and I think that’s wonderful. A common misnomer about RV life is that you leave your family behind. Sure, you don’t see them every day as you’re off gallivanting around the country, but it appears we all find ways to fit them in for the holidays. Whether it is traveling to see them, meeting up at a resort, or using the internet to connect, our loved ones are never far away!

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Ed, Liz & Chelsea

What did you do for the holidays last year?

We stayed in our RV park in Troy, Alabama. There is a large group of snowbirds that gather every year here and they host dinner. Everyone is so generous and welcoming. For both Thanksgiving and Christmas, we were able to attend an amazing feast!

If you did not “go home,” did you miss it?

I know my husband missed his family. We actually went home “between holidays” and I loved it. There was no pressure and we could just enjoy our time without running to everyone’s houses and worrying about getting everyone presents. As for my side of the family, it is very small. My sister and mother don’t do Christmas, and my brother has his own large gang of in-laws. We don’t put much pressure on each other during this time of year. It’s amazing.

What are your plans this year?

This year, things are up in the air! We are transitioning from stationary to traveling RV! We should be in Connecticut for the holidays, with my husband’s family. If that is the case, I’m NOT staying in the RV. If we are still location dependent, we may drive down to the Florida Panhandle to enjoy the festivities there.

Kevin & Laura

What did you do for the holidays last year?

Even though we were already living full-time in the RV, last year was a bit out of the ordinary because I had broken my leg and we were staying in Massachusetts while I recuperated. Luckily, my brother and sister-in-law live there, so we were able to spend Thanksgiving with them. Had I not broken my leg, we likely would have stopped in Virginia, where we are from, and celebrated Thanksgiving with friends there. By Christmas, I was able to travel and we made our way down to St. Augustine, Florida where Kevin’s parents live. We set up at a campground in St. Augustine and celebrated the holiday with Kevin’s extended family. This was a nice change as it had been years since we’d been able to visit with them at Christmas. Work obligations and the expense of holiday travel had always made visiting at that time of year difficult. Living in the RV finally allowed us to conveniently and economically spend the holidays with family. It was actually the first time in a long time that we got to spend the holidays with family.

What are your plans this year?

This year will be very different. We’ll be at a campground in Gulf Shores, Alabama for Thanksgiving, so Kevin’s parents are actually going to drive from St. Augustine to spend the holiday with us. We’ll be firing up the smoker for a smoked turkey with all the fixings. Just like the Pilgrims! We’re obviously keeping our fingers crossed for good weather because it’ll be less than ideal to try to cram four adults and a big dog into a small RV while cooking a huge meal, but, if that’s what has to happen, then so be it. We are up for the challenge!

As for Christmas, I put a lot of thought into where we would want to be. Unfortunately, we’ll be in Southern Texas at that point and we know zero people there. In the interest of not feeling lonely, I did some research and found an RV park that has a reputation for friendly staff and visitors and lots of planned activities. While we don’t know for sure that there will be events during the holidays, we are reasonably confident that there will be a number of friendly, outgoing, fun-loving people in the campground while we are there. So, our plan is to go make new friends and have fun!

Mike & Dawn

Before you started your full-time adventure, did you have any specific holiday traditions?

There were only three die-hard traditions we shared:

When we became a blended family eight years ago, we started the tradition of having dinner at a chain Italian restaurant on Christmas-Eve-Eve and viewing Christmas lights afterward. Even when daughter #1 moved away after college and couldn’t make it ‘home’ for the holiday, we bought her a gift card and met at the restaurant in different cities at the same time and FaceTimed throughout the meal.
Daughter #3 is a songbird and a member of a show/travel choir. She has performed at different locations on Christmas Eve throughout the years, so it was our tradition to attend those services to hear her performance.
A special meal made by Mike (because he’s a much better cook than me) on Christmas Eve day.

How did your traditions change based on your new RV lifestyle?

We had planned to RV our way to the west coast for the winter and spend Christmas on the road, hoping the girls could fly to our location. Because daughter #3’s choir will perform in Rome, Italy (at the Vatican with the Pope in attendance) the day after Christmas this year, she was unable to fly to see us in California. As a result, we canceled our ‘out west’ plans and totally switched gears. We’ll be heading back to the east coast to spend the holidays with our girls before the youngest flies to Rome. We can still have our Christmas Eve-Eve tradition and Mike will prepare the family favorites on Christmas Eve day.

Chris & Kim

Last year we opted to spend most of our Thanksgiving eating a lot of food from Honey Baked Ham and the rest of the day decorating for Christmas. We had a small box of decorations we just couldn’t part with and the rest were found at sales at Lowes. We had the room on our site at Las Vegas Motorcoach Resort so opted to get a 9-foot tree, bows, a smaller tree, and many many lights. We ended up donating them to the resort at the end of the season.

We also had a fireplace so opted to hang our stockings (in the Christmas box) there. We also made use of our hue lights to get the red/green effect and put them throughout the site and in the coach. We have had “Nala twin” for 16 years so of course put that in the dash, along with a new Christmas Yoda and garland. Despite Nala being ill, she still went after the garland something fierce!

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We were about 2000 miles from family. We went to see Rogue One on Christmas Day at Red Rock, which is a newer and higher-end theater. It was a great movie and we loved seeing it. Nala wasn’t doing well then, though, so for the rest of the day we spent with her, Ally, Sommer, and Piper as well as seeing our friends who lived at LVM.

This year, we are trying to decide. Our site at Riverbend Motorcoach Resort is just as big so yup, plan on decorating again! We love decorating for the holiday so that won’t stop but we may not be here for the actual holiday. We are in Florida; Kim has family in North Carolina which is a good ten hours away, so we’re trying to see if we can make it work. We opted against travel last year because it would be 24+ hours driving. Nope. This year it’s much more tempting. Driving in the east during the holidays is very stressful and it’s about 3 days, but it would be nice to see family. We are keeping open minds. Either way, decorations are a moral imperative!

Jim & Carmen

What did you do for the holidays last year?

We spent a balmy Christmas with Carmen’s father, Allen Perry in Carabelle, Florida at Ho-Hum RV Park. On December 24th all restaurants and fish markets in the area were closed until after New Year, so we threw a dinner party under the palms beside the shore of Saint George Sound. Our delightful neighbors – the seasoned Canadian vagabond Rob and his dog Ozzie (ozzieontheroad.com) accepted our invitation to celebrate our first Christmas on the road. Around sunset, Jim turned on Christmas music and opened a couple of bottles of wine from our Sonoma wine country tour. We shared travel stories and prepared homemade mushroom burgers, curly sweet potato fries, and freshly baked brioche buns. Periodically, other campers would drift by with holiday greetings, confections, bottles of cheer, and even freshly caught fish to share. Later, as the sky filled to bursting with stars I was overcome with a moment of deja vu until I realized the evening felt like a classic Christmas film from the 1940s. A magical evening!

If you did not “go home,” did you miss it?

Not really. As navy brats, we’ve never been invested in the idea of “a place called home.” Home was where our moms were. With our moms both gone, every place is home now.

What are your plans this year?

We’re heading toward the Florida Keys for Christmas. Carmen’s dad is planning to join us there in his Roll Tide Travato. But, usually, our best plans are the plans we don’t make. If something happens and we have to change our holiday plans, that’s fine – maybe even great.

Bryce & Camille

What did you do for the holidays last year?

Last year was our first year on the road. We left in late August so didn’t plan to return home for Thanksgiving, my favorite holiday with my family. Luckily though my husband and I volunteered at the Moab Community Thanksgiving which helped create some holiday cheer.

If you did not “go home,” did you miss it?

It was very difficult! I felt really sad and distant from my family. We skyped which helped some but it wasn’t the same. Volunteering helped but it didn’t replace my family.

What are your plans this year?

This year we are heading “home” and staying at least one month so we can celebrate all the holidays and recharge over the holidays. We’ve learned that living nomadically doesn’t mean you have to stay nomadic all the time. Somehow we thought that going home meant we had failed as RVers. But really you learn to relax and go with the flow. We live this lifestyle for the flexibility it provides–which means being with our loved ones too.

What about us?

We’ve celebrated the holidays differently each year of our 5 on the road. During our first year of full-timing as empty nesters, we were alone and had a picnic on the beach in Florida. The following year we met our sons for a destination holiday/early Christmas in Las Vegas. We flew to Virginia in our third year to visit with two of our sons, and last year it was just the two of us in Arizona. This year our youngest son is going to visit us in Key West. I still love to decorate for the holidays and had a full-sized tree in our toy hauler! You can see it in this RV Holiday Tour by clicking here. I’m working on my holiday decor for this smaller RV now.

Great Deals on Christmas Decor

As I was browsing around for ideas of how to decorate our 29 1/2′ Fifth Wheel, I found these great deals on RV-sized and RV-themed Christmas Decor for you. Please note that these are affiliate links, meaning we will receive a small commission if you purchase a product after clicking the link to it (there’s no extra cost to you).