Christmas Travel: Presents, Luggage and Family, all in One Car
The fullest the car gets all year
Most trips are full in one direction. Christmas is full in both – out with presents and a week of clothes, back with whatever everyone was given, plus the things nobody wants to leave behind.
And unlike a ski trip, a good deal of what you are carrying is fragile, wrapped, and cannot be squashed.
Wrapped things want their own space
The classic Christmas packing failure is putting presents in the footwell because the boot is full, then discovering at the other end that all that packing effort wasn't quite deserving of this treatment.
So separate them deliberately. Presents in one place, luggage in another, and the two don't overlap. If the boot cannot manage both, something has to move — and what better place to move to than an IXTAbox!
The whole family travels
A car with five people in it has less space than the same car with two and a lot less than the salesman may have told you. Everyone brings a bag they have to keep near their feet, eating up comfort. This is one of those occasions where the car just fills up but you never plan for it.
The return leg
You often come home with more than you left with — that is the whole point of the trip — and a car packed up to the roof on the way out has no chance of absorbing all of the amazing family presents, and you of course don't want to squeeze them too much.
If you are going to fix this properly
October is the month to sort it. Something ordered now arrives in time to be useful in December. Not just for Christmas, you can use it for the family vacations, the random weekend hike, golfing with friends and so much more!
