Have Yourself a Merry Little…Compromise
Even if it involves Christmas markets, crowds, and one cup of mulled wine too many
Travel has a funny way of revealing preferences you didn’t even know you had.
Some people chase museums. Some chase beaches. Some chase mountains, ruins, food, nightlife, or that very specific site they saw once on TikTok and have been thinking about ever since. And then there are Christmas markets.
They’re everywhere this time of year. Wooden stalls. Twinkling lights. Mulled wine. Sausages. Ornaments. Crowds moving at a speed best described as “glacial, but make it festive.” And here’s my confession: I’ve never really been able to get into them.
This feels especially ironic because I love Germany. I love winter travel. I love cozy things, history, atmosphere, and anything involving warm drinks in cold places. On paper, Christmas markets should be my whole vibe. Yet somehow, they just…aren’t.
Same goes for fairs, festivals, RenFests…anything that combines crowds, lines, background noise, and the low-level pressure to perform enjoyment in public. Is it the crowds? Probably. Is it the sensory overload? Maybe. Is it the feeling that I should be having more fun than I actually am? Also yes.
But here’s the thing: none of that actually matters.
Because travel isn’t about passing some imaginary enjoyment test. It’s about knowing yourself and learning how to exist alongside people who are wired differently than you are.
🎄 Different Travelers, Different Joy
One of the biggest lessons travel keeps teaching me over and over, sometimes gently, sometimes smacking me in the face with a set of jingle bells, is that everyone likes different things, and that’s not just okay, it’s normal.
What leaves one person cold can light someone else up like a Christmas tree plugged directly into the municipal power grid. And the mistake isn’t having preferences; the mistake is assuming your preferences should be universal.
I may not love Christmas markets, but I absolutely understand why others do. They’re communal. They’re cozy. They smell incredible. They feel like nostalgia you can walk through. For a lot of people, they are the season. The core memory. The annual reset.
And if something matters to someone you care about? Well…sometimes you throw on a scarf, grab a mug of something hot, and show up anyway, because it’s not always about what you’re doing. Sometimes it’s about who you’re doing it with—and honestly, that’s kind of the main character energy of adulthood.
🎅 The Art of Showing Up (Even When It’s Not Your Thing)
There’s a special kind of maturity that comes with realizing you don’t have to love everything on an itinerary to love the trip.
Traveling with others: friends, partners, family, means compromise. It means sometimes doing the thing you wouldn’t choose on your own because it matters to someone else. And that doesn’t make you less independent; it makes you emotionally mature.
I’ve wandered through Christmas markets sipping something warm, smiling politely at stalls I didn’t need, listening to stories I’d half-forgotten by the time we reached the next booth, and still walked away glad I went. Not because the market suddenly became my favorite thing, but because shared moments carry their own kind of magic.
It turns out joy is contagious, even if you don’t fully understand the source. Sometimes you don’t need to get the thing, you just need to be present for the person who does.
That’s not settling. That’s showing up.
🎁 Learning When to Travel Alone (and When Not To)
Of course, the other side of this lesson matters too.
Sometimes the best thing you can do for yourself and for everyone else, is travel alone. Solo travel is where you lean fully into your own rhythm. No compromises. No explanations. No negotiating dinner plans or detouring to something you’re just “meh” about.
If you know you’re going to resent every minute of something, that’s a sign…not of being difficult, but of self-awareness. And self-awareness is elite travel behavior.
The trick isn’t forcing yourself to like everything. The trick is knowing when to opt out gracefully, and when to opt in generously. When to say, “You go enjoy that, I’ll meet you later,” and when to say, “Alright, fine, let’s do this.”
That balance? That’s the real skill. And like all good travel skills, it only gets better with reps. I know I’m still working on it!
🦌 Appreciating Joy That Isn’t Yours
One of the most underrated benefits of travel is learning how to appreciate joy that isn’t personally calibrated to you and your settings.
You don’t have to love something to respect it. You don’t have to be excited to recognize someone else’s excitement. And you definitely don’t have to pretend something is your thing just to acknowledge that it matters to someone else.
Watching someone light up at a place you feel neutral about is a reminder that the world is bigger than your preferences, and that’s actually a relief. It takes the pressure off. You’re not doing travel wrong just because your joy looks different.
Also, occasionally, travel throws something so unapologetically weird in your path that you can’t help but smile, even if it’s not your aesthetic.
🎄 Finding Your People (and Staying Flexible With Them)
Ideally, you find travel companions who share your interests. Museum people with museum people. Beach people with beach people. Early risers with other unhinged morning people. Christmas market enthusiasts with…well…you get the idea.
But even the best-matched travel companions won’t align perfectly all the time. And that’s okay. Travel isn’t about perfect overlap; it’s about mutual respect and a little emotional elasticity.
The trips that stay with you longest aren’t always the ones where everything went exactly your way. They’re the ones where you laughed, compromised, wandered, and maybe stood around a festive stall thinking, “This isn’t my thing… but this moment kind of slaps.”
That’s where connection lives. Not in perfect alignment, but in shared experience.
🌟 The Real Takeaway (Wrapped, With a Bow)
Travel isn’t about ticking boxes or forcing joy where it doesn’t naturally land. It’s about understanding yourself, understanding others, and learning when to lean in…and when to step aside.
You don’t have to love Christmas markets. You don’t have to hate them either.
You just have to accept that difference doesn’t diminish a journey, it deepens it.
And sometimes, the most meaningful travel moments aren’t the ones you’d choose on your own…they’re the ones you show up for anyway.
That’s not losing your independence. That’s gaining perspective.
✨ Your turn:
What’s something you don’t personally love while traveling, but are still glad you did for someone else? Or something you happily skip while others rush in?
Drop it below 👇
And if this made you nod, laugh, or feel slightly called out (in a good way), you know the drill. 🎄✈️❤️