It may not seem like it the way things have been going in 2020, but this is still the most wonderful time of the year.
Yes, Christmas is going to be very different this year. We all know that.
It’s not the time to be separated from families, but it’s the reality of the predicament we’re in with the COVID-19 pandemic.
In hindsight, we might have been in better shape now if tighter restrictions were implemented during the summer when case numbers were low. But instead of getting 29 or 45 cases a day, B.C. has regularly seen in excess of 400 every day for weeks.
Who knows how different the holidays would have been if we’d all battened down the hatches then. We now know the case numbers need to be at or near zero or this virus can flare up at any time and we’re right back to square one again.
So, in the meantime, we have to find ways to combat our desires for public events that shouldn’t be happening now anyway until this situation is clearly under control.
No one thought our Christmas would be affected in quite this way. Certainly back in March when the virus burst into our communities, it seemed we had lots of time to work on controlling outbreaks and would be all done with it by the end of the year.
But that, of course, hasn’t happened. So with Christmas upon us, people need to rethink their priorities. There’s lots to do staying around the house that many probably haven’t considered for years.
Play games. Watch movies. Read a book. Get a little exercise, even just walking around the block depending on the weather. Call up some family members you haven’t talked to for a while either by phone or through the many means that are becoming fashionable on your computer.
Christmas doesn’t have to be a downer because of the COVID restrictions. It just means we have to reassess what we do and how we do it and what it takes to entertain ourselves.
Christmas 2020 needs to be memorable for so many people because of the adversity we’ve been going through, but just not in the usual way.