I take the whole family. There is something for everyone there and Christmas in Germany is next level. Even kids. Every parent should want kids to see that kind of creative energy to model as they mature. My wife will not go to Defcon but she loves CCC.

I agree that the timing is suboptimal in a family context, or at least it was when the kids were younger. Now that they are tech-savvy teenagers, I took them with me last year, and they enjoyed exploring the congress both with me and on their own. My wife is fine with it and enjoys some me-time after Christmas.

21th/24th -> celebrating with family the winter solstice 25th -> visiting the extended family 26th -> visiting friends

27-30th -> congress \o/

31th -> celebrating a new year either close to the congress or with family again

Works very well for very long time. Plenty of families with kids on the congress too and you always have holidays at that time.

Im not single and i'm not 20...

Lots of families there every year and older folks too, it’s actually a great date for a lot of IT folks as there aren’t many weeks when companies are effectively shut down, maybe even only this one week.

Marry a hacker, and have hacker kids, problem solved :3

I actually know several people who regularly visit the 3C with their families and children. There are a lot of cool activities for kids from a certain age (10-ish). Even without all the social programm, there are plenty of talks which are interesting to non-IT people.

Go to the camp, that's in the summer time every .. 4? years.

Many people who go enjoy the opportunity to get away from family

45, married and traveling from America to go to my first CCC

...or 40 and divorced

Its the perfect date for people who see all of their "real" family once per year, at CCC. Lots of couples attending obv.