Cases on the Rise as Holidays Approach
Santa Monica College (SMC), The City of Santa Monica and the SMC Foundation distributed groceries for Thanksgiving to 1,455 members of the Santa Monica community and SMC students. Tues., Nov. 24, 2020 in Santa Monica, Calif. (Yasamin Jafari Tehrani / The Corsair)
The holiday season can be exciting as it’s a time where many gather at their family member's homes to celebrate, cook, and even wake up early to get an early start on their holiday shopping on Black Friday. Many also host Friendsgiving gatherings in order to celebrate the Thanksgiving holiday with their closest friends.
This year many people have made a change in the ways they celebrate the holidays, due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and the new partial lockdown in California.
Mireida Fernandez, a Sociology major at Santa Monica College (SMC) said, “My holiday plans this year are just cooking food for my family and playing family games.” Fernandez, who is currently living at home during the pandemic, said, “I have my grandma at home who is an easy target for COVID-19 so I really try to stay home as much as I can. If I’m not at work, I’m home. “
If COVID-19 was not around, celebrating this year's thanksgiving would have looked much different for Fernandez and her family. “We usually go to our family’s friend’s house to eat, watch movies, and do karaoke for thanksgiving. Unfortunately, we can’t this year so that sucks. But we’d rather stay home and safe and save it for next year.”
Fernandez was also one of the 1,500 SMC students who attended the SMC Thanksgiving drive-through pantry on Nov. 24. "My experience at the drive-through pantry was really good. Everyone was so nice and I’m really thankful for the pantry for hosting this during the pandemic." said Fernandez.
Fernandez said the food provided at the SMC drive-through pantry helped her and her family's Thanksgiving meal this year. "We cooked the turkey and stuffed it with the vegetables they gave us and also made cranberry sauce." said Fernandez.
Soon after Thanksgiving the Fernandez family began getting ready for Christmas. "Aside from decorating for Christmas, we usually invite our friends to have a Christmas dinner with us and exchange gifts." said Fernandez.
However, this year that Christmas tradition will be affected by the COVID-19 pandemic "Yes of course. We love to have our friends over, but we won’t be having friends over this year. If covid wasn’t around, we would have a full house with friends and family. We would all be cooking together, dancing together, and just having a good time."
Many SMC students have similar holiday plans like Fernandez. Sophie Hellerman, an English major, says her parents typically have separate plans during the Thanksgiving holiday since her parents are divorced. “My mom usually goes to a friend's house and my dad usually goes to a friend's house, but this year they’re actually both staying home. We’re all just celebrating Thanksgiving alone this year which is weird but we’ve never been too big on Thanksgiving in general so it’s not too different.”
Hellerman says even though the family isn’t big on the thanksgiving holiday it is typically more social than it is this year because they were all able to celebrate with their friends when the pandemic was not going on.
“The holiday season is kind of being overwritten by all of this academic stress... I've never had so many assignments due on December 1st before, plus college applications." said Hellerman about the cause of her academic stress during this time.
Hellerman who has participated in Friendsgivings in person in the past says" I have some friends who don't take too many precautions with covid, but even getting together under the same roof with a bunch of people, who are definitely not getting tested, for Friendsgiving that was too much for them." says Hellerman about why she will not be participating in Friendsgiving celebrations this year.
Hellerman, ensuring she stays safe for Thanksgiving, said,”I plan on just Facetime my friends and telling them how grateful I am for them and then going to stuff my face afterwards.”
Although the Hellerman family is not big on Christmas, "In terms of Christmas, we usually have the whole family come over to my mom's house, and everyone kind of gets each other gifts and everything, and of course there's cookie baking, and hot chocolate, and of course Santa comes every year I would say that's a tradition." Hellerman says about her family's previous Christmas traditions.
The holiday season has changed drastically for many people and their families this year. Though, many have come up with different ways to celebrate the holiday season while social distancing and following safe at home orders. Typically digital gatherings are not the ideal way to celebrate holidays for many. But, it has given people a new appreciation for the holiday season and the family traditions they had before the pandemic.
