We sometimes travel, sometimes stay put. After our first 2 Christmases married, when both were spent trying to digest Christmas lunch at DH's mums and Christmas dinner at my mums, we rebelled and stayed in our house (even though just the 2 of us) and didn;t see them all until a few days later. My poor waistline couldn't take it!!
If we travel, I am supposed to work on Christmas Eve morning, so we tend to travel down about lunchtime (it's 160 miles) if it's a weekday. If days fall right for the weekend, we might go on 23rd, but not usually earlier.
We tend to leave by on 27th (my parent's wedding anniversary) or 28th at latest. We have DD's birthday on 26th, so cannot leave then. If we are down earlier in the month too, I may drop off a bag of presents to hide somewhere at that stage, but we usually bring them with us. (I have 18 adults and 5 kids to sort out down there!! but it's a bit easier since my siblings and I adopted a KK a few years back, so 1 large present for the KK draw (done in Oct) and 9 stocking fillers for all the siblings and their Significant others). Oh, and DD and DH, and Santa, and DD's birthday. And my parent's anniversary.
I would LOVE to do Christmas down there for everyone sometime. Probably won't ever happen, but maybe sometime. Mum freaks about people invading her kitchen (she wants help but then sulks and takes to the bed). MIL allows some helping but not a lot.
A few times we have stayed in either a house we've rented for Christmas week or a house my parents have (almost halfway between both family homes) that was empty 1 Christmas and I find it MUCH easier having an independent "crashpad" to return to and unwind in our own space some of the time. We've usually ended up having everyone over for drinks at least at some stage, and my siblings and SO's and DH's sis have tended to relax and unwind there after parents are gone too which is nice for grown up bonding.
Actually, must go have a hunt and see if there's anything available this year as I think we are due to go down, and it really is better to be seperate.
Oh, and despite me never making it myself, it is never too early to make a pudding Titsalina. I keep intending to (my mum finally gave up making me one last year, after 11 years!! sob! and we didn't get a cake from MIL either!! I have to get domesticated in that direction now). But the best pudding we ever had was the year my mum had made too many the year before and, rather than making a huge batch, had only made fresh for herself and my gran and gave us a year old one - DIVINE!!! I got a M&S one last year (and NOT the cheapest one by a LONG shot) and that was RANK!! UGH!!! So while I can live without cake, I really want to make a pudding this year and might make it in the early summer when I have a few weeks off.