Christmas travel party with photo slideshow.

This is a great idea!!

Margaret, that sounds like a fun way to celebrate friendship and traveling.

I live abroad, and my brother and his family in Los Angeles, while our parents are home in Oklahoma. We all gathered for Thanksgiving at my folks' (except for my sister-in-law and my husband) and so we had fun looking at a movie my brother had made of their summer trip to Scandinavia (I was able to join them for the first weekend, in Stockholm), and then I showed my parents my photos from my September trip to Brittany.

This is a little bittersweet because our parents, who used to come visit and go travel, are now at the age where they aren’t able to do that any more. So on the one hand, I feel a bit guilty as if I am showing off places they will never get to go; on the other hand, they like to see where we’ve been and what we’ve been doing. I guess we'll always have that tension now.

We all went together to Scotland in 2016 for my parents' 50th wedding anniversary, and I made them a big physical scrapbook for that one, and had several photos printed and framed from that trip for my parents (especially of my nieces). I ordered a photo collage (already framed) from Minted for each of my nieces, and I think they liked them.

Margaret,

What a great idea and a great topic!

Like you I always make a scrapbook, although I do a non-digital one. I don't consider the trip "complete" until the scrapbook is finished. I feel like the pre-planning and the "post-production" extend the life and enjoyment of the trip. I also have quite a library of trip scrapbooks now too. Because we traveled to Europe a lot with our kids when they were younger, nothing makes me happier than when my (now adult) kids pull out the scrapbook of a trip and laugh and reminisce about it.

I also printed enlargements of favorite photos for my family room wall. At my office at work I have a few "mixtiles" of recent trip photos. These tiles are cheap and square and (almost) disposable at $12 each. I enjoy looking at them throughout the day to inspire me.

I don't know. Not sure how our friends and associates would view that type of function. We maintain a very low profile about our travels. Other than very immediate family, few know how much we travel. The only things we display are a few art pieces we have acquired over the years and a few photos. We do have a large (5') copper plate above the fireplace that attracts a lot of comment. It was done by Ramalo Casare, the coppersmith, in Montepulciano and we have photos of ourselves with him and the piece that we will pull out sometimes if asked. That is about the extent of "showing off" that we do.

"I feel like the pre-planning and the "post-production" extend the life and enjoyment of the trip. " I love this quote, this is so true!!!

Kim, I know it is bittersweet for your parents, but I am sure they enjoy seeing your travels. My parents have both passed and it was hard for them to stop traveling when they became sick but they sure enjoyed hearing about our trips. They were always eager for us to travel and experience what they had done. I think it is important for you to keep sharing your travel photos with them.

Frank, I have not really thought that it was showing off. We just share our tales and adventures with like-minded friends. I live in a small military community and most of us do not have family nearby. We tend to create all kinds of clubs, groups etc., Its just the way this community works. Many people here have also lived in Europe at some point in time, so we just get talking and talking about places we have been. But I will be mindful of not appearing to "show off" in the future.

My husband and I are thankful that we can afford frequent (every other year) trips to Europe. Unfortunately, many of our good friends are not so lucky. I share more information about our travels on this forum than I do with our friends.

I don't want to rub our good fortune in their less fortunate faces.

I feel like the pre-planning and the "post-production" extend the life and enjoyment of the trip.

As Margaret said . . . Indeed! Excellent insight.

Hi Margaret, I also love to make photo books with Shutterfly. I wish we had friends that were as fortunate to travel like we do, but like the last poster, I don’t want to rub in their face our good fortune. This type of party would not work with those who do not travel.
Wish I could go to your party, sounds wonderful!
Here is my latest photo book if you would like to see it. I would love to see yours!

https://photos.app.goo.gl/wVjE9nBy473ppqS26

mpaulyn, sounds like your group has a very similar if not nearly identical backgrounds as to travel experiences so for that group it works since everyone has travel. But I am with the Prophet and Tammy in that it would not work well in our social circle. Once had a cousin remark to me, "Why are you traveling so much to Europe when you haven't seen the US?" Good point as our travels in the US has not been as extensive. While both of our backgrounds are in education we are far more wealthy than most anyone would guess so we are able to do a lot more traveling than just about anyone in our social circle or extended family. And we like keeping it that way.

Tammy, I love your book. I like that you also write along with your pictures. I have started to do more of that now - On the last page of my book, I have started to write a few words about my final thoughts of the overall vacation, people and places. I not sure how to share my books for you to view on Shutterfly.

Frank,
Thanks for keeping me mindful of how showing your trips can come across to others. I would never invite any of those that were not interested in travel. In fact, we don't limit it to European trips - we have some that include pictures from visiting places in the U.S. It just all depends on the year. We are all in about the same financial situation and profession so that is probably why the group works. Yes, it could be a little strange if this was not the case.

Margaret and Kim,

Love the "journaling" aspects of your scrapbooks. These comments are often as important for holding onto memories as the photos as years go by. We have a tradition (started because I like to do a two-page spread and the first and last pages are always singular). The last page is the "favorite moments" and the "not so much" things we experienced. It has become a tradition as we go along to keep our running thoughts about the pros and cons (in our opinion) of the cultural differences. It is really fun and eye-opening. Please be assured that in the "cons" section of this, we are not judging as worse, a culture different than our own, only noting our preferences or commenting on something that was a surprisingly difference (examples include how much we miss good Mexican food after 3 weeks in Europe, or how the older men on beaches in Southern Greece wear Speedo thongs...which my then 12 and 14 year old daughters thought was shocking,,,and we thought their reaction was quite amusing...so that went in the book). It really is fun to read though the things that set this new-to-us place aside, details noticed, amazing food we still drool over, funny conversations with locals/misunderstanding language, etc...)

We don't do it at Christmas, but our Sunday School class has had two travel dinners at our house. Half the couples in our class take some pretty significant trips-Europe, Australia, Israel etc. It started when my husband went to Nepal. It makes a good excuse to schedule a get-together and the less-traveled seem to enjoy it too and with only one exception, the less-traveled group have the resources to travel if they wanted to.

I love this idea! I wish we had close friends that we could do this with. At this point in our lives, we just don’t have friends that like to travel or are able to travel like we do. But, they do enjoy hearing about our trips!

Tammy, I am in awe!! Your photo book is so much fun, and it brought back lovely memories of my RS tour two years ago. How did you manage to do it so quickly? Too bad we missed each other in Athens . . . with your love of cats and your sense of humor, I'm sure I would have enjoyed meeting you. Thank you for sharing!

Margaret, what a great idea to get like-minded friends together, a wonderful tradition you've established.

Thank you Chani! As I said, I love to do photo books and like to get started on them shortly after a trip so I don’t forget. Like a trip report, they document my trip, so when I’m too old to travel, I can still remember my trips. I wish we could have met up. So far, I have only met Lola and Lane ( in Seattle) from this forum.

I have uploaded everyone's photos, added music, and brought international food/drink from my local grocery store. I am just amazed at how much our group traveled this year. I have photos from England, Ireland, Netherlands, Channel Islands, Guernsey, Spain, (which is very popular this year, the Alahambra is featured several times), Croatia, Italy, Portugal, Gibraltar, France, Malta, Greece, Montenegro, Maderia, and New England and Hawaii. Now just to add titles and give some a few humorous captions! I can't wait for the party. When its snowing outside, Its fun to dream of warmer places. We are all budget travelers, so I am amazed that we have all traveled so much.

Margaret

I bought a domain and display my trips’ photos on my website. After each trip, I put about 100 photos on a separate trip page. I have photos for each trip going back to 2002.