The holiday season is in full swing, and nursing families everywhere may be making plans to travel or plans to stay home. It is a personal decision to decide what is right for your family. There may be pressure from loved ones to travel, but the process can feel really daunting. This decision may change as your children age, and we encourage you to find what feels most appropriate during this season for your individual family’s needs. If you need some tips, read on to hear what parents have done in both of these situations.
Nursing Everywhere for the Holidays
There are many great reasons to travel with little ones for the holidays! Babywearing and nursing can make travel simpler with very young nurslings and toddlers alike. Here are stories from families who travel for the holidays with their children.
Leslie describes how visiting family works for her. “We don’t have family locally, so we travel each year for the holidays. Plus, my family and my husband’s family are within 30 minutes of each other, so it just makes sense for us to travel to them. It’s about a four-hour drive. Nonetheless it isn’t always ideal especially while in the life stage of breastfeeding. In the newborn stage, stopping to feed, change, and take stretch breaks makes traveling longer. My girls never nursed well during the drives, so that was a stressor and I sometimes would need to hand pump in the car. When they got older, we could time our travel better with nap time, and sometimes we could make the drive almost the entire way without stopping while they napped. Now that they are both older (almost 2 and 4 years old) we can easily entertain them with toys, movies, and snacks. The nursing pillow, pump, and other nursing supplies are no longer needed, which is a big relief! Traveling for the holidays always feels special with the girls, because they love seeing family and it’s a time we look forward to each year!”
Ellen C. explains that she prefers to host because traveling was so challenging. “We do have a cute picture of my husband LOADED up with baby gear when we went to Thanksgiving with a 6 month old, only the next town over! But I wanted to bring a portable bassinet, so my son could take a nap. We ended up not bringing it, because we felt like we already packed a lot! We had diapers, wipes, a portable high chair, straw cup, silicone plate, plastic fork and spoon. I actually still have the packing list on our fridge because it was so intense! It makes me thankful now that we have a 2.5 year old and I’ll just bring his water bottle. Actually, I can’t think of anything else we will need.”
Resources that may be helpful for nursing on the go this holiday season:
Staying Home With Your Nursling
Depending on the age of your little ones, you may decide you want to scale back your holiday plans, and that is a great choice, too. There’s no wrong answer when it comes to changing holiday traditions or changing things up for a year. Here are some stories from families who have stayed home for the holiday season and how they’ve made it special.
Kylie P. shares her experience staying local for the season and scaling back. “Luckily, a lot of our family lives locally. I’ve been pregnant or nursing during the holiday season several times. My biggest takeaway is that it’s okay to scale back and slow down no matter the reason! My mentality had to shift. I told myself, ‘This is not my year to make a side dish to share; picking up a pie from the store is fine. I can say no to any event that feels like too much.’ People were very understanding and supportive of the needs of my little family during those years. Now my children are older, can stay up late, and party right along with us!”
Amanda tells us that she thought travel would be hard but found hosting was also challenging. “My first was born in October, so I had a newborn at Thanksgiving. I thought it would be easier to host the meal at our house, but have the family cook and I take care of the baby. It was not. The family was unfamiliar with my kitchen and needed me way more than expected, on top of a rough start to breastfeeding due to a tongue and lip tie. Certain male relatives were uncomfortable being around me while breastfeeding (they’ve become more comfortable with my second baby nursing). Also, it took a lot of hands-on techniques to get my baby to latch, so nursing was not as discreet in those early days. It would have been easier that year to have been at someone else’s house for a short visit and be able to use ‘the baby needs to nurse’ as a way to exit gracefully to either a quiet room or back home. Our first Christmas as a family of three a month later, we stayed home without visitors, and it was a much less stressful holiday.
Things became much easier in general as our nursing challenges were resolved; then, traveling with a nursing baby also became much easier. I would take advantage of my own personal moments of quiet to nurse my baby in a separate room, which made the visits more enjoyable for me. I find family gatherings overstimulating, and little moments to myself and my nursling help me get through them with the expected holiday cheer! We’ve done a little of both, but will be staying home this year as a family of four.”
Resources that may be helpful if you intend to slow down and stay home:
There are many potential challenges that can arise while nursing through the holiday season, no matter where you spend it. If you need support, please reach out to an LLL Leader here.
Supporting Breastfeeding Families–Today, Tomorrow, Always
Please consider donating to La Leche League USA.
Your gift helps support this blog and the website!
Donations of any amount are gratefully accepted. Thank you!
Follow us on:
Leave a Comment
Last Updated: December 3, 2025 by Yael Breimer
Home for the Holidays or Nursing On the Go?
Nursing Everywhere for the Holidays
There are many great reasons to travel with little ones for the holidays! Babywearing and nursing can make travel simpler with very young nurslings and toddlers alike. Here are stories from families who travel for the holidays with their children.
Leslie describes how visiting family works for her. “We don’t have family locally, so we travel each year for the holidays. Plus, my family and my husband’s family are within 30 minutes of each other, so it just makes sense for us to travel to them. It’s about a four-hour drive. Nonetheless it isn’t always ideal especially while in the life stage of breastfeeding. In the newborn stage, stopping to feed, change, and take stretch breaks makes traveling longer. My girls never nursed well during the drives, so that was a stressor and I sometimes would need to hand pump in the car. When they got older, we could time our travel better with nap time, and sometimes we could make the drive almost the entire way without stopping while they napped. Now that they are both older (almost 2 and 4 years old) we can easily entertain them with toys, movies, and snacks. The nursing pillow, pump, and other nursing supplies are no longer needed, which is a big relief! Traveling for the holidays always feels special with the girls, because they love seeing family and it’s a time we look forward to each year!”
Ellen C. explains that she prefers to host because traveling was so challenging. “We do have a cute picture of my husband LOADED up with baby gear when we went to Thanksgiving with a 6 month old, only the next town over! But I wanted to bring a portable bassinet, so my son could take a nap. We ended up not bringing it, because we felt like we already packed a lot! We had diapers, wipes, a portable high chair, straw cup, silicone plate, plastic fork and spoon. I actually still have the packing list on our fridge because it was so intense! It makes me thankful now that we have a 2.5 year old and I’ll just bring his water bottle. Actually, I can’t think of anything else we will need.”
Resources that may be helpful for nursing on the go this holiday season:
Staying Home With Your Nursling
Depending on the age of your little ones, you may decide you want to scale back your holiday plans, and that is a great choice, too. There’s no wrong answer when it comes to changing holiday traditions or changing things up for a year. Here are some stories from families who have stayed home for the holiday season and how they’ve made it special.
Kylie P. shares her experience staying local for the season and scaling back. “Luckily, a lot of our family lives locally. I’ve been pregnant or nursing during the holiday season several times. My biggest takeaway is that it’s okay to scale back and slow down no matter the reason! My mentality had to shift. I told myself, ‘This is not my year to make a side dish to share; picking up a pie from the store is fine. I can say no to any event that feels like too much.’ People were very understanding and supportive of the needs of my little family during those years. Now my children are older, can stay up late, and party right along with us!”
Amanda tells us that she thought travel would be hard but found hosting was also challenging. “My first was born in October, so I had a newborn at Thanksgiving. I thought it would be easier to host the meal at our house, but have the family cook and I take care of the baby. It was not. The family was unfamiliar with my kitchen and needed me way more than expected, on top of a rough start to breastfeeding due to a tongue and lip tie. Certain male relatives were uncomfortable being around me while breastfeeding (they’ve become more comfortable with my second baby nursing). Also, it took a lot of hands-on techniques to get my baby to latch, so nursing was not as discreet in those early days. It would have been easier that year to have been at someone else’s house for a short visit and be able to use ‘the baby needs to nurse’ as a way to exit gracefully to either a quiet room or back home. Our first Christmas as a family of three a month later, we stayed home without visitors, and it was a much less stressful holiday.
Things became much easier in general as our nursing challenges were resolved; then, traveling with a nursing baby also became much easier. I would take advantage of my own personal moments of quiet to nurse my baby in a separate room, which made the visits more enjoyable for me. I find family gatherings overstimulating, and little moments to myself and my nursling help me get through them with the expected holiday cheer! We’ve done a little of both, but will be staying home this year as a family of four.”
Resources that may be helpful if you intend to slow down and stay home:
There are many potential challenges that can arise while nursing through the holiday season, no matter where you spend it. If you need support, please reach out to an LLL Leader here.
Supporting Breastfeeding Families–Today, Tomorrow, Always
Please consider donating to La Leche League USA.
Your gift helps support this blog and the website!
Donations of any amount are gratefully accepted. Thank you!
Follow us on:
Facebook
Category: Breastfeeding and Holidays
Subscribe to Our Blog
Upcoming events:
La Leche League Meetings