With Covid-19 growing, many people are wondering how they can celebrate the holidays safely and accommodate the CDC guidelines and tips. As we are greeted with the holiday seasons many people tend to get together with their family or friends and celebrate, however with the global pandemic, it has become more difficult. Here are a few ways to celebrate the holidays while still taking safety precautions. 

The most important part of having a safe holiday season is wearing your masks and staying six feet apart from others. Whether you are with your grandparents or even your cousins, you don’t want to put them at a high risk of getting sick. Wearing your mask and creating a distance is one of the best ways you can help to stop the spread. While at friends and family gatherings you should make sure that you are an appropriate distance away and are following proper guidelines. If a family member feels uncomfortable being around others make sure you are allowing them to have their own space. If you are having an inside gathering, masks are super important in stopping the spread. However, if you are at an outside gathering it is strongly advised to keep your mask on except for when you are eating or drinking. 

If you plan on visiting your family in a different state or country, a safety precaution to take is quarantining in your home after your vacation for at least fourteen days. This would help limit your contact with the public in the case that you were exposed to someone with the virus. Doing simple tasks like staying away from crowded areas such as stores or theme parks can help to make sure others and yourself are safe. It is important to follow these precautions to help eliminate the spread.

Seminole High School Sophomore Flordelee Pino states “I find it helpful for students to stay in their house away from others if they plan on going on a vacation over winter break.”

Another safety precaution to take is if you plan on hosting a gathering where there is food, having single portion servings is a major benefit, this helps to stop cross-contamination. If you plan on making sandwiches you could cut them up into smaller pieces for each person to individually grab their own serving so they are not touching other people’s meals. However, for things like chips, it would be best to have serving spoons in the bowls and provide gloves and hand sanitizer. 

Mikayla Mahabir an SHS IB student said “If there is food provided, they should be prepared in miniature servings so it is easier to grab your own serving and not have to worry about touching the other food.”

For gift-giving, the safest way to prevent being exposed to the virus is ordering your friend’s and family’s gifts on the internet or ordering them from the store and choosing curbside pickup if available at your certain location. Taking these measures helps to have to go into stores with large crowds. Online ordering can be hard especially if you are buying any articles of clothing, however, most stores are offering up to a 60 or 90-day return. You need to be aware companies have to ship your order so it would be best to order your online gifts ahead of time so they come before Christmas, if your store offers curbside pickup it is usually faster.

All of these ideas can help you and your loved ones have a safe holiday season and help eliminate the spread of the ongoing virus.