I saved $200 on flights by traveling on Christmas Eve last year. I'd do it again in a heartbeat.

• Last year on Christmas Eve, I flew from Boston to Paris with my family of four.
• The flights were the cheapest we could find, and the airports were quiet and easy to navigate.
• I don't regret celebrating Christmas Eve or Christmas Day in a nontraditional way.

For as long as I can remember, I've always spent Christmas Eve surrounded by my family

Last year was no different — although the setting for our Christmas Eve celebration was on a crowded airplane, and our holiday meal was provided by Virgin Atlantic.

In 2022, my parents, younger brother, and I decided to shirk our usual Christmas traditions — a Christmas Eve dinner party with relatives, then opening gifts underneath the tree on Christmas morning — and book a trip to Paris for the holiday instead.

Instead of gifts, we pooled money together and saved where we could in order to spend the week abroad, exploring a city that we had only been to together when I was very young.

To save money, we flew on Christmas Eve

We found the cheapest flights from Boston to Paris if we booked them for Christmas Eve.

This personal revelation was also backed up by research.

According to a 2023 study from the flight-search site CheapAir.com, Christmas Eve is the best-priced departure date for the holiday season.

The report — based on airfare data for 11,000 flights over the holiday season — says that flying on Christmas Eve could save you close to $120 compared to December 22, which is ranked as one of the most expensive days for holiday air travel. You'd save a similar amount by flying on Christmas Day, another less desirable travel day for the holidays, according to the same report.

We ended up saving roughly $200 on each of our flights.

At first, I was disappointed to miss out on our usual Christmas Eve celebrations

I was worried that we would be tired and jet-lagged on Christmas Day once we got to Paris since we were taking a red-eye flight.

However, I quickly found it was a more pleasant travel experience than I'd expected.

Even though our flight was full — many others must have had the same bright idea as us — we found the airport was quiet due to the holiday and also festively decorated. When we traveled, we found the airport being less crowded also meant shorter security lines, less expensive Uber rides from the airport to our hotel, and a generally more relaxing travel day — especially for the holidays, which are a notoriously stressful time to travel.

Thankfully, I was also able to sleep on the overnight flight so that once we arrived at our hotel and had a quick nap, we were ready to hit the ground running.

Ultimately, it was worth it

In Paris, we were able to enjoy being in one of the most beautiful cities in the world all decorated for the holiday.

At the Christmas markets, which pop up all over the city around the holidays, I drank mulled wine and ate potatoes covered in gooey raclette cheese, which I still dream about to this day. I also got to gaze in wonder at the holiday lights on department-store facades and along the Champs-Élysées.

We truly couldn't have chosen a better time of year to visit.