A couple enjoying a “gap year” with their six-year-old daughter has lifted the lid on what Christmas is set to hold outside of the UK this year – and it’s looking pretty enviable.
Hayley and Lewis Trow have “traded boardrooms for beaches” in order to make once-in-a-lifetime memories with their little girl, Nyla, as they spend a year travelling the world.
It has meant leaving their jobs, home and family behind, deregistering Nyla from school, plus spending months saving and planning in advance – but the Cheshire-born couple say it has been well worth it, both in memories and finances.
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Hayley, 37, found that it was cheaper for them to be globetrotting than it would be to have remained home, and Christmas in Sydney this year is set to be similar.
“One of the biggest changes this year is that we’ve chosen not to buy Nyla presents in the usual way,” the mum told Whats The Jam.
“Instead, we’ve decided to put our budget into experiences she’ll remember.
“In previous years, I’d set a budget, ignore it, panic about whether there were ‘enough’ presents under the tree, and spend more out of guilt.
“We would spend around £500 on Nyla at Christmas, and that isn’t including experiences like Christmas lights and the Polar Express, which can sometimes double that amount.
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“Because we’re a travel family, we need to keep it lean this year for Christmas.
“It felt very different and surprisingly freeing.
“Being away from the UK has made us realise just how much pressure surrounds Christmas.
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“The school calendars, constant activities, rushing around shops, panic-buying online, and the unspoken comparison with how other families are doing it.
“We literally feel a world away when speaking to friends and family back home, hearing their panic for the Christmas countdown and the amount of shopping days left.
“Here, it feels like Christmas without the chaos!”
Nyla won’t be completely without toys, as family members gifted £100 for them to pick up presents for the little girl, but the budget is vastly different to what Hayley and Lewis, 45, have been used to.
After jetting off earlier this year, they have visited France, Italy, Bali, and are now settled in Australia to ring in Christmas and the New Year.
Hayley said: “This year it’s about building traditions that feel important to us, not just doing anything and everything Christmas related like we would have done back home.
“We’re of course keeping simple traditions such as Elf on the Shelf – we brought him with us – baking cookies and doing some Christmas crafts.
“The biggest difference is the pace.
“It’s summer here, so we’re spending Christmas morning on the beach instead of indoors, wrapped up against the cold, and there’s no pressure to overdo everything for one single day.
“We don’t have family with us like we normally would, which is hard, especially for Nyla, but we’re also creating memories we never would have had otherwise.
“Christmas is the ideal time to catch up and enjoy with family, and that’s probably the hardest part.
“But what we don’t miss is the mental load.
“The stress, the spending, the feeling that Christmas must be bigger and better every year. “Stepping away from that has been a huge relief.
“I didn’t even buy a Christmas tree!
“This Christmas has made us realise that ‘perfect’ doesn’t have to mean more money, more stuff, more pressure.
“It sounds obvious, but at home, you get so caught up in it all, it’s hard to catch yourself.
“This is the first Christmas where we haven’t felt pressured to make it perfect and it’s been the most enjoyable one yet!”
Hayley worked in IT recruitment until quitting her job for a year of travel, while Lewis is on a one-year sabbatical from his recruitment role.
Meanwhile, they took Nyla out of school, and she has been having online tutoring that aligns with the UK curriculum.
The couple settled on a budget of £2,000-3,000 per month – enough for them to visit all of their dream locations.
When they started cutting back in order to save for the trip, they realised how much they had been spending at home – with their outgoings averaging £4,000-5,000 per month.
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