Families are swapping the cold and consumerism for warmer climes and minimal stress abroad this festive season – here’s how to join them
The Christmas countdown has already begun and, if you’re anything like me, you might be wondering what fresh delights this festive season holds. Omicron fears last year followed a cancelled 2020, while 2022 has, so far, seen the loss of a beloved monarch, political mayhem, a plummeting pound and a cost of living crisis that shows no sign of abating as the long nights set in. Fun times.
Never have we been in greater need of something to look forward to – and combining the costs of a winter holiday with festive celebrations may well be looking increasingly attractive.
In 2016, after years of choosing between cold weather and consumerism in the UK and long, expensive flights to see my family in Australia, my husband and I decided that we needed a year off from Christmas. We explained to our children – then aged 10, nine and seven – that we couldn’t afford both a holiday and presents, and that instead we were going on an adventure. Sri Lanka ticked several boxes – a destination we’d not visited before, winter sun and a country where, save for the odd bit of tinsel, the children wouldn’t be taunted by the spectre of Christmas at every turn.
Starting at a luxurious resort just outside of Colombo eased us past the jet lag; from then on, it was local transport and family-run guesthouses. We explored tea plantations and waterfalls, scrubbed elephants with coconut husks in the river, played cricket with inquisitive children, marvelled at a roadside sword swallower and watched devotees clad in dazzling white arrive at the Temple of the Tooth in Kandy. Down in the south, we spotted leopards on safari in Yala, slept in a treehouse, surfed at Weligama and snorkelled at Jungle Beach. The children received blessings at every temple we visited, ate curry with their fingers, and drank from coconuts – all without a Playstation or tablet in sight.