Thanksgiving Family Road Trip Essentials

Sue Kirchner is a family fun coach and weekly contributor to Patch.com. She’s the founder
of ChocolateCakeClub.com and ChocolateCakeMoments.com both sites dedicated to helping busy families have more fun together. Sue and her family fun ideas have been featured on TV, newspapers, magazines, and blogs. 

Thanksgiving is just around the corner and you know what that means … get out the fat pants! No, I mean ROADTRIP! It is that time of year when the whole family piles into the car with our suitcases, non-perishable Thanksgiving dinner contributions, and the dog and we head out over the river and through the woods to Grandma’s House for Thanksgiving dinner. Since we've made several 5-hour roadtrips to Iowa every year with young kids, I thought I would pass along a few tips that my family relies on to make the trip go a little easier.

Roadtrip Car Essentials:

Snacks - No messy or crumbly snacks for the kids! Unless you want to start an all-you-can-eat snack bar under the back seats, little, individual size snack bags work perfect. Grapes are good, easy to eat and no peel to worry about. Skip the juice boxes, too. Put drinks in drip-proof sippy cups or sports bottles so they don’t leak or get squirted everywhere.

Water Bottles – Always have at least one bottle of water in the car. Even if you don’t drink it, it’s nice to be able to rinse off your hands or that binky that fell in the back seat and is now covered in dog hair.

Garbage Bag – Always have a bag in the car to throw out trash. Trust us, you don’t want to hold a snotty Kleenex or ketchup covered wrapper or banana peel for 4 hours. (Been there. Done that. Not fun.)

Pillows, Snuggle Buddies, or Neck Wraps – If the stars are aligned and Holiday fortune is smiling on you, your young kids will fall asleep for awhile. (When they are older, they put their iPod headphones on and they may as well be asleep.) While most kids are resilient and flexible, they shouldn’t have to kiss their navel while they are napping. Give them some support.

Antibacterial Wipes/Hand Sanitizer – You have kids. Need I say more? Buy it in bulk.

Boredom Bag – You’ll need plenty of entertainment to keep the kids (and adults) amused during the long car trip. Read my post on How to Keep Kids Amused on Car Trips and Family Roadtrip Sanity-Saving Planning Tips.

For more, check out all of my family travel tips and fun ideas. 

What items do you take on your Holiday Road Trips that you can’t live without? How do you keep everyone in the family amused on the road?