By Sarah Waffle Gavin, on November 20, 2015

Home for the holidays

Whether you spend your holidays enjoying big meals at the table, friendly football games in the snow or caroling around the neighborhood, this time of year is best spent with family.

In my house, Thanksgiving means crowds of loved ones, football on TV, and lots of wine.

For those of us who live near our children, parents, grandparents, and extended relatives, getting the gang together for these kinds of festivities is easy. For those of us who live far away, it can be a bit more challenging. And expensive.

There certainly are a lot of us who hit the road. According to AAA’s 2015 Thanksgiving Travel Forecast Report, almost 47 million Americans will travel 50 miles or more next week for Thanksgiving—a number that is up slightly from last year’s prediction of 46.6 million. Expedia data indicates even more of us will head out and about for Christmas.

With all of these people traveling to see their loved ones this holiday season, we here at Expedia decided we wanted to do something to make their journeys a bit easier. So we launched our #ExpediaSendMeHome campaign.

As the name suggests, our effort is designed to help travelers like you get home for the holidays. On our dime.

The way it all works is simple. You post a photo on Instagram that captures the essence of the holiday spirit for you. In the caption, you explain what we’re looking at, how it relates to the holidays, and why you want to go home this holiday season. On our end, we’ll review submissions daily for originality and overall appeal. We’ll select one winner a day for the next 30 days. And we’ll send them home.

The campaign launched earlier today, November 19, and it runs through December 18. Click here for official rules.

And in case you’ve already got plans for this year’s holidays, you can hold on to your winnings for next year—the future travel credit is valid from the date of acceptance of prize (and subject to availability at time of reservation, of course) through January 10, 2016.

Good luck! And Happy Holidays to all.