The Huffington Post – Aimee Chan
“Our family Christmases can be a little unconventional — once we took our 2-year-old son to South Africa. Some of my friends gave me a hard time. They said I gave myself a safari holiday while my son was too young to protest instead of giving him a tree and a stocking. For his third birthday, instead of a big birthday party, we took my son to Malaysia on a road trip. We split the weekend visiting a real life submarine outside Malacca and then at a theme park in Johor Bahru. He talked about it for weeks. (Despite my cynical misgivings, his favourite part was actually the sub, not the Thomas The Tank Engine-themed rides. And he barely remembers the low key bash we held for him at all.) These trips were such a success that this has become our family tradition: to really go out of our way to plan family holidays that are interesting and unique. Despite what you might think, time has proven that my kids remember these times together in foreign environments far more than candy canes and opened presents.”(more)