It’s Christmas Eve here in Perth and this year I’m spending Christmas at home.

Last year I spent Christmas abroad so I thought I’d do a little post to compare Christmas at home vs Christmas abroad.

For me, I think Christmas at home is winning…

The tree lights are on, the presents are wrapped, some of our cousins have just been to visit, and now I’m watching Home Alone (my favourite Christmas movie).

It’s beginning to feel a lot like Christmas.

As I sit here watching young Kevin Mccallister fend for himself at Christmas I can’t help but reflect on how nice it feels to be home and surrounded by loved ones.

Last year I didn’t have this.

Myself and a friend set off to New York City with hopes of a White Christmas. We got a lot of rain and freezing cold temperatures, but unfortunately no snow. We didn’t let the bad weather rain on our parade (pardon the pun) but as Christmas got nearer  I did feel a sense of loneliness.

Sure we had each other, but we were 12 hours behind home so I was seeing photos of all my family and friends celebrating Christmas at home, before Christmas even came to New York.

Don’t get me  wrong – we had a beautiful time. The Christmas lights tour, the carollers, shopping at Macy’s on Christmas Eve (living my very own Serendipity scene), a picnic lunch in Central Park on Christmas Day  in our matching Christmas jumpers, followed by climbing the Empire State Building. The atmosphere was definitely another level to what we have at home, but something just wasn’t right. It was probably one of the first times I’ve ever felt homesick on a holiday.

It was my first time ever being away from home for Christmas – you know I love to travel and I’ve been on much longer holidays than this one – but the knowledge of being away from everyone at the most magical time of the year was a strange feeling for me. It’s weird because Christmas at home hadn’t really felt very special in prior years due to growing up and family growing distant etc. but as soon as I was away from it all, I wanted to be back.

This year I’m home and it feels extra special. I’ve done more to embrace the Christmas spirit this year and have felt extra lucky to be home.

I hope everyone is as lucky as me.

So the verdict is – for me Christmas is about being home with family. I love to travel and experience new things and it’s nice to spend holidays away but if I was to do it again I’d want to be surrounded by lots of loved ones.

Hope you all have a great Christmas.

Jade xo