‘Season’s Greetings’: How to Stay Safe While Celebrating the Holidays During a Pandemic

‘Season’s Greetings’: How to Stay Safe While Celebrating the Holidays During a Pandemic

The year 2020 is quickly coming to a close, and there’s only one more holiday season left before we say goodbye. Just like Thanksgiving, Halloween, and all of summer, this year’s holiday season will be celebrated a little differently. Being one of the biggest social holidays of the year, it’s going to be hard not to follow the traditions we’ve established over the years. We may not be able to visit family and friends, but that doesn’t mean the holiday spirit can’t be shared far and wide. Now more than ever we need to celebrate what we have to be thankful for, and celebrate our loved ones that we can’t physically be with this season. With COVID-19 cases rising, we’ve compiled a list of new safe holiday traditions for you to try with your loved ones.

Let’s start by getting into the holiday spirit. Every year you probably decorate for the occasion. Why not kick things up a notch and really go overboard this year? Decorate the house, even more than you do in other years. Get some fun homemade decoration ideas for a low-cost alternative from our Pinterest board here. Play holiday music on a loop all season-long while baking some goodies and decorating gingerbread. Take those baked goods and share them with family and friends by sending care packages to their door. Or, organize a cookie swap with neighbors. As part of your care package, add a personal touch with a homemade holiday card.

Now that the holiday spirit is firing on all cylinders, there’s lots of activities you can take part in at home with the family, or virtually with extended family and friends. At home, enjoy some hot chocolate or mulled cider while coloring a holiday-inspired scene, or completing a puzzle as a family. Get our favorite recipe for mulled cider here. Play some holiday games and do some crafts with ideas at our Pinterest board here. Watch the holiday parade on TV this year. If you can’t watch it live, you can always catch it online. Organize a DIY Secret Santa to show off your creative side and add a personal touch to the gift giving experience.

Take a drive through the neighborhood to look at all the holiday lights and decorations. Invite friends and family to join in a drive-thru style parade, keeping in touch with each car through conference call. Host a virtual watch party of your favorite holiday movie. Or, go even deeper and host a virtual holiday party where guests partake in chat-friendly activities, like a game of charades, a cookie-decorating contest, a test of holiday-themed trivia, or an ugly holiday sweater contest.

These are just a few of our favorite ideas on how to celebrate the holidays during a pandemic. I know things this year can seem isolated, but that doesn’t have to take the joy out of the jolliest season. Now’s the time to use our imaginations and come up with creative ways to alter those well-loved traditions we enjoy this time of year.