Christmas Day...

[5lilfish]

I posted already about coming to Aulani the day after Crhistmas.... Here's our situation: We have 5 kids. Our 3rd child will be 18 and will have headed off for her Freshman year of college (5 1/2 hours away) and she has always felt strongly about being home for Christmas. Our youngest 2 kids will be 11 (twins)....still in the Christmas Magic years. The 3rd child has bent a little to the idea of being in Hawaii for Christmas because she knows that it would be tough to do this trip over the little kid's school break without being gone for Christmas...sort of a one time pass to go away.

I have to admit...I am a little reluctant about being away for Christmas too. I love the Christmas magic and I worry about this feeling like we skipped Christmas. I have 3 kids in college...I know time is precious and that we don't have the kids home forever. Those years are winding down for the older kids. At the same time, I am losing time to make a trip like this happen too.

How magical is Christmas at Aulani? How can I be comfortable knowing that it will feel like Christmas? For those that have gone away for Christmas, how did you handle it? I usually wait until the kids go to bed and then bring all the gifts in. They wake up to BAM...Christmas. Hawaii is incredible but I don't know how I will feel to lose Christmas in this.

Thoughts?

Jess

 

[ngl]

I posted already about coming to Aulani the day after Crhistmas.... Here's our situation: We have 5 kids. Our 3rd child will be 18 and will have headed off for her Freshman year of college (5 1/2 hours away) and she has always felt strongly about being home for Christmas. Our youngest 2 kids will be 11 (twins)....still in the Christmas Magic years. The 3rd child has bent a little to the idea of being in Hawaii for Christmas because she knows that it would be tough to do this trip over the little kid's school break without being gone for Christmas...sort of a one time pass to go away.

I have to admit...I am a little reluctant about being away for Christmas too. I love the Christmas magic and I worry about this feeling like we skipped Christmas. I have 3 kids in college...I know time is precious and that we don't have the kids home forever. Those years are winding down for the older kids. At the same time, I am losing time to make a trip like this happen too.

How magical is Christmas at Aulani? How can I be comfortable knowing that it will feel like Christmas? For those that have gone away for Christmas, how did you handle it? I usually wait until the kids go to bed and then bring all the gifts in. They wake up to BAM...Christmas. Hawaii is incredible but I don't know how I will feel to lose Christmas in this.

Thoughts?

Jess

We are making our second trip to Aulani in March. We have 9 yr old and 7 yr old and we both work so anytime the kids have an extended time/week off (Spring Break, Summer, Tgiving) we try to go on vacations. Live in FL so DVC makes it easy just to even go to Disney World for a long weekend of magic. Our one exception is Christmas. While they are still in the Santa stage it is difficult to pull that off during the holiday season (and btw both kids have Dec bdays!!) Sounds like you have done it before so you may be well-versed at it!

Having said that, we did love Aulani or we wouldn't be going back! However, I guess it depends on a few things as to whether I would recommend Aulani at Christmas:
1. Where are you flying from? Coming from the East Coast (as you probably know) those first few days are tough to get the time adjustment. Unless you want to be up at 4am on Christmas morning, I would recommend flying out a few days prior.
2. Rainiest month of the year in Honolulu is December. We went in April last time and had a couple half days of sky as black as night and ended up playing Uno a lot! We are used to that in FL where it rains for a few hours every day in the summer and then it is fine so we are not bothered by it. I have friends who live in HI (grew up there) and said Dec generally is the most rain.
3. Aulani is wonderful and lots to do. I am sure others who were just there can comment re Cmas activities. However, we were there for Easter (I know not as big as Cmas!) but they did not have anything. No egg hunt, etc. I thought that was odd. I guess in the kids club they did a few things but when we go away we want to spend the time w/the kids so tend not to be in the clubs.
4. At the end of the day, as you well know, the "Christmas magic" is wherever your family is! I completely understand how you feel about the window closing on making certain trips happen.

Not sure if this was helpful at all but just some personal comments!

 

[LottiesMommy]

Ultimately, the decision will need to be made based on your own family's Christmas traditions... but I will share our experience.

We did Christmas at Aulani in 2016. My daughter was 9 at the time and told us she never wanted to vacation over Christmas EVER again. Aulani was fantastic. We had a great, relaxing vacation... but for my daughter... it just wasn't the same.

How we did it: We celebrated an extended family Christmas before leaving for Aulani the week before Christmas. Our daughter got most of her presents at that time and we did our typical Christmas at that time. I thought that would help us all feel like we had not missed out on our typical Christmas traditions. The exception was Santa who would obviously need to find us in Hawaii. I brought a few small gifts in my luggage and then made a run to Target while in Hawaii to grab a few other gifts... but keep in mind that everything purchased needs to come home in luggage, so shopping had to be focused on those limits.

Santa was able to visit overnight, and still have that "BAM" Christmas feeling. During Christmas Eve day I moved presents to an easily accessible location (under the bed). I made it a point to read quietly and allow my daughter to fall asleep and was able to quietly move everything in to place. We were in a studio... so it was a challenge (wow, those rooms are small), so it would be WAY easier if you had a one or two bedroom.

... but even with our efforts, it still didn't feel the same. Christmas day was incredibly windy and chilly. We had a cabana for our family and they put us by the kids play area so we not only had wind, but had cold water blowing into the Cabana for a good portion of the day. We solved this by closing the drapes on the cabana. My daughter wrote a short story for her school about how her Christmas started out so sad (she was disappointed to be in Hawaii on Christmas) and got better when we camped out in the cabana and played legos and board games that she got from Santa. There was hysterical laughter at the strangeness of being huddled in our little cabana with the wind going crazy around us. She says it was the best day of the whole vacation.... and yet, when asked this year if she would like to go back she said. "no, never at Christmas. I never want to be away from home at Christmas again".

Aulani tries to make it a special at Christmas with carolers and hot chocolate to give away. Decorations are beautiful. We liked the carolers, but when they started handing out hot chocolate the lines were insane (100s of people waiting for a cup of hot chocolate... ugh) so we skipped the hot chocolate. We ended up not doing the Christmas dinner in the ballroom and instead did the buffet, which was fine.. but I think it was the typical food and nothing special for the holiday. I do not recall much else being special for the holiday.... of course, just being there is special any time of year.

As ngl mentioned, Hawaii was not warm in December... at least not warm enough for us. We loved early June... but late December was not worth it in my opinion. We spent very little time in the water and the cove water was really cold to me. The kids all seemed okay, but you know it is cold when the lifeguards are wearing parkas to watch you swim in the water.

So... that is our story... take from it what you will.

We had a great time and it was a wonderful vacation, but I would not personally choose Christmas at Aulani again. The prices were very high and yet, we were not as able to enjoy all the pools and outside activities due to the chill in the temps. I am SURE others will have different opinions and some may prefer the December timeframe... but it wasn't for us.

 

[CaliAdventurer]

That week is the busiest of the year. For that reason alone, I would stay away. But having been there until Xmas eve the last two years I can say it’s a very nice change. It’s decorated for Xmas and lots of holiday souvenirs. There are roving Carolers. We do an extra Xmas dinner with friends when we return and we don’t feel like we miss out. This year we went straight from Aulani to Whistler and that was a Wonderland.

An aside, the executive lanai would be fun for that young adult group. There is only one. You can book it as soon as you have a reservation number so if you already have one, do it; DVC can’t book that week yet so you should be able to get it.

 

[CaliAdventurer]

If they do a luau on Xmas Day- that would be an epic Xmas Dinner to remember. Whole roasted pig and all the trimmings.

 

[tgropp]

Only you know what your family will want but I would try it at least once.
Our first family Christmas vacation (myself, my wife, son 13 and daughter 6)was at WDW in 1994. My wife had some serious reservations about being away from her family. The rest is history. This past Christmas as a family, we took our 8'th family Christmas vacation. Now it also includes a SIL, DIL and two grandchildren. My children tell me that those Christmas vacations away from home were their most memorable Christmases ever. But every family is different. To each his own.

 

[frank808]

We have spent every Christmas Eve and Christmas day at Aulani since 2012. We are local and the all the family has rooms at aulani and it has become a tradition for us. Every year before this it was the 24th and 25th with hot chocolate, apple cider and cookies. This year there was only hot chocolate and cookies on the 23rd and 24th. The resort is decorated very mildly compared to disneyland and disneyworld. We used to hang christmas lights on the balconies but last year we were told this is no longer allowed. We also have a little 2 ft christmas tree that we bring every year.

 

[alohamom]

We spent Christmas and New Years in Maui when our kids were very young (1 and 3) and it was amazing. The weather was fantastic and we loved every day of that vacation but it certainly didnt feel like Christmas. I did stocking for the kids, primarily for my older child and did a lovely Christmas dinner at Roy's but that was about the only Christmasy feelings we had.

When they were about 10 & 12, we did two weeks before Christmas in Oahu and the Big Island and then came home to have a traditional Christmas. We had hot and humid weather the whole time and even got to see a Christmas parade which was very cool. We left the islands around the 20th of December and I remember the forecast being days of rain so we were grateful to have had really nice weather while we were there. I liked that it was a lead up to Christmas at home but in all honesty, I think i would have rather had gone a few months later (we are in the Toronto region of Canada and it gets very snowy and cold here for Jan-March)

We toyed with going somewhere for Christmas this year because we moved and it kind of doesnt feel like "home" yet but my kids, who are now 20 and 18 and living in University residences for the school year, both really pushed for an at home Christmas. I was surprised but they kind of had the same emotions that @LottiesMommy daughter did, it just isnt the same. You may want to really consider the older one being away from home already for a few months and then not really having Christmas at home may be hard on her, even if she can rationalize it and understand, she is also going to be going through some detachment and may just want to revel in a traditional at home Christmas.