What are your little holiday "traditions"?

[CarolDanvers]

Those little things you do that wouldn't really excite anyone else but you make you happy and enhance your holiday? I like going to a supermarket as soon as possible after arrival and buying shampoo, conditioner, shower gel and body lotion in a scents or brands not available in the U.K. Then we use it all holiday and if I like it I buy some more to take home and then whenever I use it it takes me back to being on that holiday 😊

Yes house clean and tidy.
Empty wash basket.
Clean beds but folded back so they air.
Cleaner in the loo.

Coconut shower gel and body oil if going abroad to a hot sunny place.

I save up new books to read on holiday.

You used to be able to buy sew on tourist badges with the names of places and a pic on. We’d buy one each UK holiday and sew it onto a thick blanket used in the car and when camping.

I buy a cute notebook before any holiday and write a little diary before I go to sleep, noting down random comments of the day or funny things we have seen. Then DS draws a picture of his favourite thing about the day.

I get one out every now and then to read and laugh about Vall Buti (Sausage Valley [buti = butifarra, Spanish sausage] ) a bit of mountain road we were driving along with the amazing scent of grilled sausage! DH falling over in a stream during a picnic in the middle of a 7-hour drive , a double rainbow, a cloud that looked like a spaceship, a field of donkeys - that led to the 3-legged wonky donkey joke! Our dog being chased by a goose!

And we always find a small something to put on the Christmas tree.

When I was a child, a solution was found to arguments about small decisions, such as who would sit next to who, which café we would go to, what activity we might do. The choices would be written on scraps of paper and put in a box; everybody would be reminded that no moaning would be allowed about the outcome. This having been agreed, one of the children would be blindfolded (a fitting use for airline masks), and would draw a scrap of paper. This really worked, and we all liked it so much we had to agree to make a choice of this sort every day we were away!

We didn't use this method to decide where to go on holiday, although once our parents announced it by writing the same destination on multiple pieces of paper for us to draw!

VanillaSauce - how does Bailey's work on cornflakes? (milk substitute) sounds like my kind of holiday

Whatever time of day we land we go to McDonalds near the airport. We eat in the car and talk about what our pets have been up to while we were away and if the kennels will be open to get our dog.

I love your idea of the notebook elquinto and your holiday sounds so familiar and very much the type of things we laugh at too...I could just picture it.
I'm also like you MrsPear and have to have everything coconut when abroad - spritz, shower creme, hair products ...just makes me think of the sunshine smelling them!

Ours are :

We must all sing Cliff Richard's Summer Holiday as we set off in the car.

If driving to the South West we must play Spinal Tap's Stonehenge as we are passing It.

First alcoholic drink has to be toasted by saying "cheers cheers holiday beers"

Camping holidays must involve a bottle of Sloe Gin

Must do one family selfie at an interesting place.

Must buy a Hard Rock Cafe badge if there is a branch where we are.

Husband must visit all record shops in the area.

For UK. A pile of magazines. Including really awful magazines. The ones with puzzles where people share stories of sleeping with their boyfriends stepfather who was a serial killer etc. Plus a couple of decent books and a large jigsaw to share.

Plans. I always plan. Places to eat. Things to do. Weather forecast. Travel when abroad - preferring not to book trips through travel agent. Local laws and etiquette. I have a huge folder by the time I go away. Silly because we rarely use the information!

Arrange for deep clean so house is sparkly to come back to.

I watch an episode of blue bloods whilst packing. I have no idea why.

We always book into an airport hotel that offers parking for the duration of our holiday for the night before our flight.
That way we can take our time getting there. It doesn't matter if there's a traffic hold up etc, because we're not rushing to get the flight. Once we've checked in and parked the car, we go to the bar and relax. We have an evening meal in the hotel with a bottle of wine. As soon as we've checked in to the airport hotel our holiday has started as far as we're concerned, even though we haven't left the ground yet.

I have a mojito on the outbound flight.

Is the holiday box going to become the new Christmas Eve box?

When we were kids my dad had a running joke with a friend to send each other the most boring postcard possible, so we all loved looking for the dullest ones we could find - things like dead chickens or old wooden buckets!

Soap. No matter where we go abroad, we go into local chemist type shops and buy a few bars of soap. We use them up throughout the year and remember our holidays. My favourite so far is a lovely pink bar we bought in a small town in Spain, followed by a transparent bar we bought in Germany. Very cheap ways of preserving the holidays and remembering throughout the year etc...

Not such nice traditions seems to involve both me and my husband getting hugely flustered, running round checking everything is turned off and him deciding to start packing as me and the children are all packed and sitting in the car waiting. Often an argument ensues and quite often we drive to the airport or campsite or whatever in tense silence :-)

I always buy a pretty mug. Then sometimes when I drink from it/get it out of the dishwasher I get happy memories of when and where I bought it. I don’t care about mid-matched mugs!!

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My mum always made cauliflower cheese for dinner when we got back from holiday, as we'd have eaten rubbish on holiday. I bloody hate the stuff! It felt like adding insult to the fact that the holiday was over!

Always one ice cream per day (no more, no less)!

If we’re driving to our holiday we always plan a stop at a KFC. Maybe don’t go any other time so it’s a big treat.
Also Fanta lemon and I try to resist buying it any other time

puddleglumtheMarshWiggle Never tried it on cornflakes but works perfectly fine in porridge and coffee.

Eat ham rolls at 4am on the way to the Eurotunnel and all day thereafter.
Crack open a bottle of red as soon as the key goes in the gite door. And panache for the older DC's - referred to as 'Barmaid's tears'.
Plan a Carrefour trip asap to stock up handsoaps and shower gel etc.
Insist on taking my Joanne Harris French cookbooks even though I rarely open them
Visit one or more brocantes for tat to bring home.
Stock up on books to read - usually get through 10 in a fortnight.

Just booked a week in Brittany, can't wait now!

I have to clean and tidy the house and empty the wash baskets too. So lovely to come back to a welcoming house.

DC always have those mini sugary variety cereal packs. Even now as almost-adults they ask for them if we go away.

Everyone gets a new book or three to take away with them.

A massive breakfast once we're airside, and once we're on the plane a G&T. We always take our insulated cafetiere and a bag of coffee, so can begin each day wired to the eyeballs.

I will collect paperback books from the boot fair or charity shops before we go and leave them there. I also take shampoo, conditioner shower gel etc and leave remains there.

My reasoning is the weight gained in my suitcase by leaving them behind can be utilised by bringing back different items of food and drink we have found in local supermarkets or just booze. We try to sample the local spirit or liqueur in restaurants or bars (sometimes we'll buy a miniature bottle to try) and if we like it we will bring it back