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How to Navigate Holidays in the Pandemic Hellscape

10/28/2020

11 Comments

 
Pandemic holiday celebrations / Karen McCann / EnjoyLivingAbroad.com
The holidays are going to look very different this year. Photo: Liz Devine Photography

​Merriment Turns to Mayhem When Halloween Prank Goes Wrong!  
Every year we see headlines about practical jokes taken too far. Like the October 31st my friend returned from college to find the family home empty, furniture overturned, the kitchen splashed with what looked like blood. She freaked, fled, and called the cops, who tracked down her mother and step-dad at a party, laughing over their hilarious trick. I suspect my friend still has trust issues to this day.
 
Then there was the high school teacher who wanted to foster Halloween spirit, so he burst into a classroom wearing a ski mask and brandishing a chainsaw roaring at full throttle. A prank about killing children in a school — who could object? The really surprising thing was that in the chaotic stampede only one student broke a leg. The lawsuit was settled out of court for $100,000.
 
And of course, there’s the famous 1938 “War of the Worlds” radio broadcast, in which a (fictional) Martian invasion was presented in a breaking-news format so real it had viewers calling the authorities in a panic. Cops tried to storm the broadcasting studio to stop the show; the press turned the tale into living legend.

Pandemic holiday celebrations / Karen McCann / EnjoyLivingAbroad.com
Historians now say the panic wasn't as widespread as the press suggested. The show had few listeners, as it was on opposite the popular ventriloquist Edgar Bergen and his dummy, Charlie McCarthy.

Americans have a history of going overboard at Halloween, and judging by all the skeletons, pumpkins, and giant spiders in my town, families are making the most of the season despite the specter of Covid-19 hanging over our heads. In fact, Halloween — with its apocalyptic atmosphere and emphasis on masks — fits fairly naturally into the pandemic landscape. No doubt pranksters are busy planning over-the-top stunts via Zoom. 
​

Other upcoming holidays —Thanksgiving, Christmas, Hanukah, Kwanza, Las Posadas, Diwali, Chinese New Year, Winter Solstice, New Year’s Eve — are a bit trickier to navigate.
 
Let’s start with the big question: is it safe to travel home for the holidays?
 
The short answer is “no.” But you already knew that.
 
“Thanksgiving and the winter holidays may look like the only bright spots in the hellscape that is the end of this year, but they come with a unique-to-2020 set of logistical challenges,” writes JR Thorpe in Bustle. “This year, spreading COVID-19 to your community and the people at your table is much more of a threat than your aunt's awful sweet potato casserole.”

Pandemic holiday celebrations / Karen McCann / EnjoyLivingAbroad.com
We'll miss the cheerful chaos of our big, pot luck Thanksgiving feasts in Seville. But great as they are, they're not worth the risk of getting Covid or spreading it to people we love.

“I happen to like my family. But I’m not insane enough to risk death,” 82-year-old Mort Zwick told the NY Times. “I’m not going to rend my garments and cover up the mirrors because I can’t see my children … Every time I miss them, I think of how lousy they were at one stage of their growing up.”
 
“Mort’s got a point,” Rich said. “It’s the same for holidays; there were plenty of good times, but let’s not forget the lousy parts.” I flashed back to various verbal brawls and embarrassingly inappropriate jokes. The year someone didn’t show up because he was in jail. Close friends who said they never ate any dish their relatives brought because they suspected the food had been poisoned. The time a guest showed up drunk accompanied by a young girlfriend with whom he canoodled on the couch for hours, surrounded by twenty-five guests including his horrified mother and several fascinated adolescents.
 
Obviously we won’t have that kind of entertainment this year, so we’ll have to rely on our own resources to make the holidays fun and meaningful.

Trick-or-treaters won't be coming to our door this Halloween, so at dusk Rich and I are taking a driving tour of the most spectacular decorations we've found on our daily walks; I can’t wait to admire them in their full, spooky glory lit up after dark. As we cruise around, we’ll listen to songs like "Monster Mash" and of course, wear our masks.

Pandemic holiday celebrations / Karen McCann / EnjoyLivingAbroad.com

​I’ve often wondered why nobody writes Thanksgiving songs, and then I ran across 29 Perfect Songs to Add to Your Thanksgiving Dinner Prep Playlist. It has everything from Sister Sledge’s “We Are Family” to Little Eva’s wacky “Let’s Do the Turkey Trot” to Fats Waller’s “All That Meat and No Potatoes,” followed by “Do the Mashed Potatoes,” courtesy of Mr. James Brown. Perfect soundtrack! We’ll be singing along to these golden oldies as we prepare turkey with all the trimmings. (I’m collecting recipes for the leftovers; if you have a good one, please pass it along.)
 
The great thing about Thanksgiving is that if you eat some turkey, you’ve pretty much fulfilled the ritual and can snooze contentedly in front of Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade. Oh yes, they’re having one, but it’s been reinvented in hopes it won’t become a super-spreader.


The next holiday — which for us is Christmas — involves countless traditions: carols, cards, tree, stockings, presents. Rich and I won’t be celebrating with others this year, but we plan to honor all the customs, plus a few of our own, such as holiday snails. We’ll exchange silly gifts, dress up, cook a feast, eat too much, drink too much, and tell stories of Christmas disasters.
 
What  disasters? Well, there was the time our dog Eskimo Pie found a gift-wrapped rum cake, ate the entire thing, and was discovered in a drunken stupor. Or the year we managed to find a live tree in Seville, back when árboles de Navidad were rare, and right after we decorated it, a strong wind blew through an open window knocking over the tree — which then shed all its needles. And there was that unforgettable moment when I tipped over a bottle of red wine on a snow-white tablecloth while eating Christmas goose with British friends. The list goes on and on.
 
But when you come right down to it, these moments add spice to the season. Like families, holidays are messy, maddening, and every once in a while, magical. We love them just as they are — not despite their imperfections but because of them.

Street Santa / Pandemic holiday celebrations / Karen McCann / EnjoyLivingAbroad.com
One of my holiday traditions in Seville is taking a photo of this hard-bitten street Santa. He is so wonderfully unlike the sanitized Hallmark, Hollywood, Disney version of jolly Mr. Claus.
 
In 2020, the way to prove how much we love our families is to stay away from them. This morning I heard from a Sevillano friend with whom I’ve celebrated Thanksgiving and Christmas for many years. He and several relatives now have Covid-19; one is in the hospital.
 
“I made the potentially deadly mistake ,” he wrote, “of putting my guard down in a family setting. If nothing else please take this lesson. A common last name is not a certificate of immunity, and no matter how much you love someone we are all strangers when it comes to the virus. I was peer-pressured into excessive stays, not ventilating enough, and tolerating behaviors that exposed everyone... Thanksgiving is going to be a super-spreading event, and the best way to express love to our families is to remain alive for them.”
 
Like ill-considered Halloween pranks, this year’s holiday gatherings may seem like a good idea at first, but there’s a very real chance they will come back to haunt you and yours. I believe our best move is to fill the next two months with as much love, laughter, and social distancing as possible. And brace ourselves for whatever gobsmacking surprises 2021 has in store for us. 

​Good luck out there!


Do you have any holiday plans? Disaster stories? Recipes for leftover turkey? Please share them in the comments below.

​YOU MIGHT ALSO ENJOY
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​This article is part of my ongoing series of articles on surviving the pandemic, if possible while holding on to some shreds of our sanity and sense of humor.
Sign up HERE to get free stories in your inbox each week.
11 Comments
Jorge from Riga
10/29/2020 08:07:43 pm

I should had asked before the moms at the building!

In Riga, this week is a school holidays (next two weeks, starting from grade 7 teaching will be remote only). So I thought that the children could be trick or treating until late into the night.

Like all years, I bought about 5 pounds of candy, 6 microwave popcorn packets, took out a plastic pumpkin with blinking LED's, my wizard hat and hanged a Halloween mask on the door.
Is 9 pm and I am dressed all in black (including a black face mask) with my wizard hat on, the pumpkin blinking and yet, not a single trick-or-treat: Zero, Zilch, Nada, Rien, Nichts, Niente!

Normally at this time, all the candy and popcorn is gone, and I am cleaning up the mess outside my flat’s door.

Today the building is totally quiet, tomb-quality quiet, and most of the flat’s windows are dark.

I think that many of the families went out of town because of COVID.

I just checked at my regular supermarket chain web page, and they do not offer refunds on unused/unopened food.
The only good thing is that the sell-by date of most of the candy is December 2021.

COVID killed Halloween this year, at least in my building.

How things are going in other places?
Or is as dead as here?

Reply
Jorge from Riga
10/30/2020 01:24:56 pm

Oops!

Haloween is on Satuday!

kill me!!!!

I will report this weekend

Reply
Karen K McCann
10/31/2020 03:54:10 pm

Jorge, I am so glad you cleared that up! I was thinking maybe in Latvia they celebrated Halloween on a different day — like the Canadians hold their Thanksgiving in mid October, instead of the end of November like us. Please let me know whether you get the usual number of trick-or-treaters this year. I'm so curious about how the holiday is going to play out in various countries. Friends in France are on complete home lockdown, our Spanish friends can move around the city but can't leave its boundaries, and here in California we won't see trick-or-treaters but everyone's gone overboard with spooky decorations. Keep me posted, please!

Reply
Kim Gonzalez
10/30/2020 05:41:25 pm

Karen, don't forget the classic Thanksgiving song, Alice's Restaurant by Arlo Guthrie! No Thanksgiving celebration here in Valencia. Not sure if I could get my hands on a turkey and Taste of America is charging 4€ for a can of pumpkin! Maybe just our classic apple crisp...

Reply
Karen K McCann
10/31/2020 03:59:22 pm

How could I overlook that classic, Kim? [For readers who may be unfamiliar with this one, here's the story of this sixties cult favorite: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alice%27s_Restaurant.) Thanksgiving is never easy abroad; I remember running all over Seville, trying to find cranberry sauce and sage for the stuffing. Then Taste of America arrived and their prices were so high I'd just get one or two cans of cranberry sauce for a table of 25 guests. I think you're wise to go with the apple crisp.

Reply
BILL KIMBALL
10/30/2020 06:37:10 pm

Happy Halloween and X-Mas Rich and Karen. Glad you're so well disciplined. Trying to do the same here in Newport. Always appreciate the great humor and pics. Much love thru the season. Bill

Reply
Karen K McCann
10/31/2020 04:03:47 pm

Great to hear from you, Bill! Newport seems like a safe and comfy place to hunker down through these crazy times. Take good care of yourself and know that we are sending you much love and good vibes. Here's hoping 2021 will surprise us all by being a pleasant year. Or at least one that doesn't keep clobbering us over the head. Good luck out there!

Reply
Jorge from Riga
10/31/2020 08:53:53 pm

Update:

The candy is (almost) gone!

I have the feeling that were less kids than usual, in particular the small kids in the 4-7 yr. range.
All the children were from our building.

In any case I used a black face mask and in place of letting the kids go into self-serving mode, I gave the candy to them using a soup ladle.
Less contact, and safer (and less candy for each kid!)

There was a general recommendation to reduce the contacts but no an order to fully cancel the Halloween.

Now I will celebrate "my" Halloween with pizza and Czech beer (Krušovice Imperial, pale lager), while watching my #1 show: Midsomer Murders.
There is nothing like a good British murder() to raise the spirits!

p.s.

Is anyone is VERY interested on what is going on here, can read one report about Halloween from the Latvian Public Media news service (use google translate to read in English!):

https://www.lsm.lv/raksts/zinas/latvija/epidemiologi-aicina-attureties-no-halovina-atzimesanas-arpus-majam.a379951/

There is an English web version but this particular news has not been translated yet.

Just now appeared one interview with an Coronavirus denier, who got it and was 4 days at the hospital

https://www.lsm.lv/raksts/dzive--stils/cilvekstasti/covid-19-parslimosana-maina-ligitas-skatijumu--sazverestibu-piekriteja-tagad-mudina-neizaicinat-virusu.a380045/






Reply
Karen K McCann
11/1/2020 01:37:54 am

Jorge, I'm so pleased that you got trick-or-treaters, even if somewhat fewer than in the past. And how clever of you to dish the treats out with a ladle. so everyone could avoid unnecessary contact. You certainly earned a night of pizza, beer, and British murder mystery — one of my favorite ways to spend an evening! Happy Halloween, my friend.

Reply
Kitty
11/1/2020 05:24:13 pm

I love the way you two celebrate everything!! We haven't ever had a trick or treater here in the burbs; our driveway is too steep.

This will be the first time in 52 years that Harvey and his college/commune friends won't be having a Tday together-Zoom the next day. Only one person has made all 51. I am looking forward to just our family.

No disasters. Great Tday in Kathmandu in 1983, where I organized it with chicken for 25 people most of whom we met trekking.




Reply
Karen K McCann
11/2/2020 07:27:52 pm

Wow, a tradition lasting 52 years; that's a tough one to give up. But I'm so glad they are going to give it a miss this year. Much better to be safe than sorry! The great thing about Thanksgiving is that it can be a huge feast, like the one you organized in Katmandu, or a small, "just-us" celebration, and either way you will feel that you have honored the occasion. Enjoy your turkey!

Reply



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