What will a Covid Christmas look like? Here’s how to start planning

A very merry Covid Christmas? Here’s what the end of a crazy year might look like

In what’s been such a trying year, we’re all looking forward to it ending, and celebrating making it through. Christmas 2020 will be a special one, but how will we celebrate, when our normal methods are off limits?

NPHET have advised that Halloween and Christmas this year are not ‘cancelled’, as we may have feared. Acting Chief Medical Officer Dr. Ronan Glynn has advised us all to plan festivities “within a Covid-19 environment” and according to restrictions.

When I imagine Christmas week and how we first begin to let our hair down, I think of a 12 Pubs run through town. Unfortunately, if current restrictions remain in place, it looks like that may be off the cards, especially in a big group. If you can whittle your Christmas gang to six, and be content with sticking in your local, Christmas pints may look a little different, but they’ll certainly be just as appreciated (even if you have to get out by 11:30pm). Singing ‘Fairytale of New York’ in Coppers will have to wait til next year.

Shopping for presents will be made all the more stressful by long lines and restricted numbers in stores. A packed city centre isn’t the safest place to be during a pandemic, so planning your online shopping sprees now will make your life a lot easier come December. Start gathering a list of gifts that you spot on Instagram, and make the special effort to seek out local Irish businesses. This year is all about banding together, and if you can support local, it will make a massive difference to those in need of a boost.

Just like present shopping, planning the feast at home will be different too. If you normally have huge family gatherings over Christmas week, unfortunately they may have to be curbed a little for 2020’s celebrations. Although restrictions may change over the next few months, currently, social visits are limited to six people from no more than three different households.

Why not make use of your newfound Zoom skills and hold your Christmas gatherings a little differently? Quizzes, drinking games, Netflix sessions, reminiscing on the year that was are all perfect ways to bring 2020 to an end, and can be done remotely just as well.

However you celebrate Christmas this year, it’s important to acknowledge just how tough it was to get there. You may be a little hardened, a little more resilient, a little different than how you started 2020, but that’s all the more reason to celebrate.

Read more: An ode to the class of 2020, on a Leaving Cert Results Night like no other

Read more: Get creative and forge your own style: Lou Slevin’s tips on finding vintage gems during Second Hand September

Read more: Ireland’s ‘wet pubs’ to reopen on 21st September