How to Covid-Christmas Like a Pro

Social distancing is all the rage for Christmas 2020! This year’s festive celebrations will be like none we have rolled out ever before. If you’re not sure how to get with the flow, we aim to help with some easy, fun, and maybe a few more inspiring ideas to get you up and on it.

Travel restrictions and social distancing requirements will play a major role in this year’s gathering of family and friends. If you can’t all get together or don’t fancy the idea of weeks of quarantine in order to travel, why not throw a festive Zoom party? Its all about making the best of the situation. Making small sacrifices to keep yourself and your loved ones safe this year could mean you also get to spend next Christmas together…

Festive Zoom Party will require the guests to have a laptop, computer, mobile phone, tablet, or the like from which to sign in to Zoom or your chosen platform, WIFI or data with which to connect, and a suitable area in which to congregate before the screen.

With the logistics out the way, pre-arrange in a way that allows for all the guests to be ready and able to participate fully in the proceedings.

If you are lucky enough to gather as a family or with close friends over the season, do not forget to social distance.

Face Masks will certainly feature more than ever before this year. Make it fun and exciting, for adults and kiddies alike.

• Match masks to your Christmas hats for a themed look
• Host a Christmas Mask contest to choose the best in various categories (wearer’s age, colourful, design, humorous, etc)
• Extend the Ugly-Sweater Contest to include The Matching Monstrous Mask Contest

A Backyard Winter Wonderland seems fitting during a pandemic when you still want to pay homage to Christmas and all the season means to you and yours without venturing out for the holidays. Put your heads together and come up with a theme and then go all out to transform your outdoor area accordingly. It need not break the bank, just do what you can with what you have.

Involve everyone so that it becomes a fun activity in preparation for the festive culmination. Some decoration ideas:

• Plenty of fairy lights
• White backdrops and ground covering if possible
• Colourful baubles, pinecones, garlands, wreaths, snowmen, Santa, reindeer, and elves can all be used

Food Safety is paramount with all the risk of contagion at this time. Bring and shares, buffets, potluck, and the communal cocktail punch will have to be closely monitored or reviewed. The sharing of condiments and the preparation and serving of food will have to be carried out with due consideration. One person should ideally prepare the food and one person should be the designated server for all. Consider putting out single-serving condiments and make it the norm for hands to be washed before any eating is done. Have a hand sanitiser beside the snack and try to avoid platters in favour of individual servings of snacks.

Fun Activities to entertain and make memories for years to come are always welcome. More so this year, for sure since we are never likely to have another Christmas of this kind in our lifetimes. Hopefully! So what are your options? Here are some ideas to work with and tweak to fit in with your plans and those of your party:

• Decorate!! You’re probably never gonna spend this much time at home ever again so make the most of it and decorate the house like never before! There is no shortage of décor ideas online and on YouTube, so search up a storm, be inspired, and then get cracking. This is a time to make memories, and with every year that you rehang the decorations made and conspired over this year, the happy recollections will come flooding back of a Christmas like none before or since.
• Festive Decorations are always fun to hang, group, make, and/or design. If you’re having a zoom party, you can even have cartons of goodies sent to each participating home so that you can all create together, virtually. Think Christmas wreaths and garlands, fresh or not; gingerbread houses; Christmas tree and mantelpiece trimming and embellishing; Christmas stockings; and the all-important milk and cookie platter for Santa.
• Bake and ice Christmas Cookies and Biscuits: if you’re not industrious enough to bake the cookies or biscuits, simply make batches of colourful sugar icing/frosting and ice ready-bought ones. The kids will love it and be gainfully employed for a very long time.
• Boardgames, whether played virtually or in person, are a great way to have fun in groups and to liven up the party. If you don’t have board games, think about charades, try Christmas-themed Trivia, or Balderdash without the board. Heads-up is available on mobile phone app stores and is fun for all ages! Try it or look for other apps to make your virtual or physical party!
• Years-Gone-By is always fun, and the younger participants get to learn a lot about their older family members. Bring along photos of Christmases past, and reminisce at will, telling family tales or sharing embarrassing and interesting anecdotes of past gatherings. A digital version works well for Zoom parties.

There is definitely no time like the present to introduce and instil a family tradition. The possibilities are endless, but here’s an idea or two:

• Carolling, whether accompanied by a guitar or around the piano in the drawing-room, or out in the yard or the neighbourhood, is always a great way to spend Christmas together.
• Movie Marathons: just chill for a good part of the day or night, enjoying a selection of favourite holiday movies, such as The Polar Express, or any one or more of the Home Alone franchise…. Maybe a couple of classics. Don’t forget the popcorn, especially sprinkled with good cheer.
• Special Tree Ornaments: A new ornament every year, dated and labelled with the recipient’s name, for that person to hang while you all trim the tree.
• A Midnight Toast: A hot cup of cocoa, complete with marshmallows or chocolate straws, to ring in the new day. Or eggnog – whatever you prefer, you decide. But it should be served in a personalised Christmas mug!
• One present on Christmas Eve: Pop a gift into the Christmas stocking or beside the mantle or create clues for an ‘Amazing Race’ to seek out the present and allow everyone to open just the one before retiring for the night before the big day.

Whatever you decide and however you spend your Christmas this year, it will go down in the annals of your family’s history and be reminisced over for generations to come. Make it count.

Seasons blessings to you and yours this 2020.