✈️ Holiday Travel Tips

This holiday season, travelers are facing record-breaking airfare prices, with demand soaring and airlines struggling to keep up. But don’t let sky-high costs ground your holiday plans. Whether you’re heading home for turkey and stuffing or jetting off on a getaway, there are smart strategies to save on travel. We’re breaking down insider tips to help you find budget-friendly options, avoid the chaos, and make it to your destination without breaking the bank.

🏷️ Book Last-Minute Deals or Flash Sales → airlines sometimes release last-minute discounts to fill unsold seats. Monitor sites like Google Flights, Skyscanner, or Hopper for these deals.

🔔 Use Fare Alert Tools → set up price alerts on Google Flights or Kayak to be notified of price drops for your desired route.

🛫 Split Your Trip → instead of booking round-trip tickets, check one-way fares on different airlines. This often leads to savings.

💳 Use Loyalty Points or Miles → redeem frequent flyer miles or credit card points to offset higher fares during peak travel times.

🗺️ Consider Nearby Destinations → fly into secondary airports or nearby cities, then rent a car or take public transportation to your final destination.

🤑 Travel with Budget Airlines → check low-cost carriers like Spirit, Frontier, or JetBlue. Be mindful of additional fees, but the base fare can be much cheaper.

⚠️ Leverage Hidden-City Ticketing → use a service like Skiplagged to find cheaper fares by booking a flight with a layover in your actual destination. (Note: Do this with caution and avoid checking luggage.)

📦 Look for Package Deals → some travel booking sites, like Expedia or Priceline, offer discounts when you bundle flights with hotels or rental cars.

😴 Consider Red-Eye Flights → late-night or early-morning flights are often less expensive and less crowded.

📆 Buy Flights Midweek → flights are generally cheapest when booked on Tuesday or Wednesday mornings, as airlines adjust prices and release new deals midweek.

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Aubrey Byfield is a vintage curator and owner of Haven Estate Sales & Vintage, a small business that produces top notch estate sales in the Austin, TX area and breathes new life into vintage classics. Here are her expert tips on incorporating vintage pieces into your holiday decor:

•⁠ ⁠Scoring Truly Unique Finds — shopping secondhand, especially at estate sales (my husband and I joke that every estate sale has a Christmas room regardless of the time of year), for vintage Christmas decor is a great way to set your decor apart. My most recent sale had boxes of vintage bubble lights that were a big hit!

•⁠ ⁠Incorporate Vintage Ornaments Creatively — look for vintage ornaments at thrift stores, flea markets or online marketplaces and hang them on your tree or display them in unexpected ways, like hanging them from a chandelier or garland, or scattering them as table centerpiece accents.

•⁠ ⁠Repurposing Vintage Textiles — vintage linens and Moroccan rugs that are a bit too far gone are perfect for repurposing into homemade stockings and other holiday decor.

•⁠ ⁠Framed Christmas Tree — our Grandma made this amazing framed Christmas out of vintage costume jewelry! The frame is vintage as well and it lights up when you plug it in. I’ve always thought this was a brilliant way to upcycle old costume jewelry in a really unique way that brings joy during the holiday season.

📺 WATCHING → Buy Now! The Shopping Conspiracy ✷ It’s possible that this new Netflix documentary was strategically released around the Black Friday/Cyber Monday holiday shopping craze, and it would be a brilliant scheme. This eye-opening documentary delves into the manipulative tactics employed by major corporations to fuel consumerism, often at the expense of environmental sustainability. Directed by Nic Stacey, it features interviews with former executives from companies like Amazon, Adidas, and Apple, who reveal strategies such as “planned obsolescence” (where products are designed to have a limited lifespan to encourage repeat purchases, e.g. the "Phoebus cartel," where lightbulb manufacturers in the 1920s intentionally reduced the lifespan of bulbs from 2,500 hours to 1,000 hours to boost sales) and deceptive marketing practices designed to keep consumers in a cycle of constant purchasing.

📙 READING → The Myth of Normal by Gabor Maté ✷ This is a really good time to read this book because it explores the profound connection between societal dysfunction and individual health. Challenging conventional ideas of wellness, Maté underscores the notion of an interconnected mindbody (hence the coined term adjoining the two) and argues that chronic stress, trauma, and cultural norms rooted in disconnection are the fundamental causes of many modern illnesses. He shares compelling research and personal stories revealing how physical and mental health are inextricably linked, while offering a compassionate framework for healing. And we all could do with a little bit of healing right now.

🎧 LISTENING TO → Global Groove playlist on Spotify ✷ In keeping with the theme of this week’s newsletter, this amazing playlist features music and artists from around the world.

Last week we asked the community to share your favorite holiday decor traditions from your country/culture/neck of the woods. Here’s what some folks had to say:

Parol stars are a quintessential Filipino Christmas decoration, the parol is a star-shaped lantern that symbolizes the Star of Bethlehem.

Known as la flor de Nochebuena (the Christmas Eve flower), poinsettias are a traditional decoration originating in Mexico.