December 7: 05/12/2020 What Christmas Looks Like in a pandemic

I think it is really important to document what we are going through this year, and the things that we are not doing. The rules are being rewritten for everything, including Christmas. This Christmas looks so different.  The first perspective to share is how incredibly lucky we are. We are in Australia and the response was stealth and effective. We were in lockdown superfast, and super tight. We are grateful. We have been living with COVID since March 2020 and this 5^th December 2020, there were 886, 721 new cases reported in the world with 12, 931 deaths. In Australia, for both statistics, there were zero. We are still living under restrictions such as boarder closures between States and countries, bans on large groups of people, and so very many community events, that we would normally have attended, have been cancelled. Here is a list of some of the things that have been different this year.

Live entertainment:  Christmas Carollers, dancers, and Christmas Parade entertainers walking through the shopping centres would share joy and cheer. Now in some shopping centres there are musicians busking who have lost a year’s worth of work from the shut down of live music venues. No Carols by Candlelight concerts and only a small number of significantly smaller Christmas events.

Christmas Crafts and School Holiday Activities: We have attended many of he free shopping centre events for children in the last few years. While there are still some like ‘take a photo of yourself and turn it into a video’, or ‘pose behind a silly petition to get into an ugly Christmas Sweater photo’ there has been very little for the girls to do. We don’t mind too much because we think of all of the artists and professionals who would facilitate these events, and it seems so crazy to think they would be put at risk. The restrictions came in force swiftly and change so often, so it has been really hard for events to be planned and run the risk of incurring the costs of late cancellation.

Visiting Santa: Most Shopping centres have cancelled photos with Santa, some have set it up so you can get a selfie with him as he roams through the shops, and others have made elaborate studios so that the kids and families sit at least 1.5meters away. Things are very different but there is still magic to be found in shop windows and displays.

Covid-19 protocol and Social Distancing: This Christmas we are standing on our social distancing “Stand Here” markers, we are sanitizing our hands in every restaurant / shop. We are scanning the QR (Quick Response) Code when entering a restaurant or registering our name, address, email and phone number in a book at the front counter. We are walking around with a Covid Safe Government issued mobile phone App to make it easy to track everyone in an outbreak. We are planning holidays that can be cancelled in a moments notice if we are restricted form travel. We are staying safe within the State of Queensland for now. We haven’t travelled anywhere, and are not wearing masks as yet, while our city and State is currently COVID free.

There are still Christmas Trees everywhere but I have noticed that the decorations are not quite as big as they have been. Christmas isn’t cancelled but it sure is different, and that is ok. Change is good. The biggest gift this year is time to focus on what is really important.  

So they are the facts, but what are the feelings? There is just one word really, gratitude.

GRATITUDE.

So much gratitude that despite it all, there is so much we are enjoying.

With so much protocol, we are enjoying so much good health.

With so many restrictions, we are enjoying so much freedom (particularly to travel in a big bubble and visit relatives).

With so much instruction, we are enjoying so much clarity and choice.

With so much change, and less tradition, we are enjoying so many new experiences.

I feel so much gratitude this year. Unlike any other.