Photo by Muffy Aldrich
The Modern Guide to The Thing Before Preppy

Saturday, November 21, 2020

Reader Questions for the Community: Holidays

 

A Reader Question for the Community: 

I have a question for the community: During these uncharted times, how are you planning to add some normalcy to the upcoming holiday season?

 

A Second Reader Question for the Community: 

Given the situation, are people still planning on festive attire for the holidays?  How festive?



39 comments:

  1. Looking good is the first half of everything.

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  2. Advent is usually a quiet time here. This year ought to be similar. We usually get a couple of poinsettias and hang wreaths over the mantel and on the front door. We'll put up a tree a day or two before Christmas. fThe right food and drink can make an otherwise dull time perk right up. Martinis and tamales (not necessarily together, but I would not rule it out) are definitely planned. As for dressing festively, since I generally muster a bow tie for Zoom church, sure. Dressing nicely is fun. Maybe this is the year to get embroidered cords with a holiday theme!

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  3. Christmas-scented candles.

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  4. I'll be wearing a casual version of holiday attire and will use holiday-themed backgrounds on zoom. As for Christmas decorating, this will be the first time in 47 years I will be spending Christmas Day in my own home (instead of in NC with my family), so I am pulling out all the stops. (Then I'll sort out all my decorations afterwards and probably give half of them away.)

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    1. Please send them to me! I'll pay the shipping. :)

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  5. Comfortable, casual and a bit festive...sweaters and cords. No dress clothes this year since we won’t be out. We’ll be fully decorating the house since we’ll be home the full season to enjoy it!

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  6. I’m actually throwing normalcy out the door. Planning on picking up Indian take out for Thanksgiving.

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    1. Since Indian is my number one comfort food I applaud your choice. I may follow your lead for Christmas! Good call!

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    2. What a great idea! i

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  7. I always decorate too early and sometimes too much but it's all taken down the first week in January. It's traditionally a quiet day other than lots of long-distance phone calls but no church this year and no Chinese take-out on Christmas Eve this year since there will be no guests.

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    1. Growing up, we would always order Chinese food for take-out on Christmas eve. I miss that. Seems to be a New England thing, as everyone else does it on New Year's Eve.

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    2. Growing up in southern New England there was a Chinese restaurant in our town.
      Nobody I knew ever ate or ordered food from there, much less on Christmas Eve.

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    3. @Anonymous 7:53 then you should do it this year since you miss it and have it delivered! :) The local Chinese take-out in my southern Maine town is always mobbed on Christmas Eve.

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    4. I love it. A great terse response. Spoken like a true Yankee.

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    5. New York City, of course, is not New England. But for many who live there, and
      don’t celebrate the holiday, Christmas is set aside for a movie and Chinese food.

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    6. Where is that, please, in “southern Maine?” You don’t suppose they sell the
      seven fishes, do they?

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    7. @Anonymous 10:42 Scarborough, right outside of Portland.

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    8. Thank you for your response. Much appreciated.

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    9. In our little town the local firehouse has an all night bingo game. They provide the hats and noise makers and serve a nice dinner and plenty of adult beverages. At midnight, everyone stands up and watches the ball drop in New York City with the usual kissing and hugging and then we all go home.

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  8. Since we'll be staying home this year, I plan to religiously follow this smart guide from Country Life: https://www.countrylife.co.uk/food-drink/day-drinking-ultimate-guide-festive-tipples-christmas-190096

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  9. Our old decorations, and recipies will be out in full force! Thanks so much!

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  10. These are strange times indeed. For Thanksgiving instead of our usual 30 or so guests, it will just be me, my husband, my mother in law and sister in law. Everyone wears festive attire. The turkey feast isn't homemade as I actually purchased from a fancy local restaurant. Clean up should be a breeze! Neither of my children will be here as my daughter is an intermediate care nurse in DC and my son is a Jr. at college and the CDC is telling students not to go home, to stay on campus. Christmas decorations don't go up until around mid December and my husband (the Grinch) insists decorations are put away on New Year's Day. Hopefully we will get to see our kids then. It would be the most excellent Christmas gift!

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  11. To me, aside from having my family here in my home, Thanksgiving means the little things we take for granted... gratitude for our blessings, the lovely smell of the turkey roasting in the oven, and homemade gravy, eating too many carbs all day, and going for a walk on the beach... weather permitting. Then, there is always watching "Trains, Planes and Automobiles." Cheers!

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  12. We will be wearing something plaid, but probably a more casual version. Same traditional food choices. More texts and calls, less hugs. We will be doing less but will be trying to enjoy it just the same. I will miss the festive spirit of being out and about holiday shopping. Hope the Amazon delivery person will be wearing a Santa hat.

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  13. Family zoom on Christmas Eve with our group reading reading The Christmas Carol, one family per stave. Skypes on Thanksgiving individually. Our children are far flung and sensitive to us becoming infected

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  14. For the past many years I painfully have watched an old southern village that did not even had a door bell light. After gaining permission I have throw all I had into decorating it myself. Ten 8 foot lighted trees lining the streetscape. All windows garlands and lighted with color. Lighted nativity in the gazebo with angles over the entrance, music and all the children given hand held silver bells as the choir. Now everyone will have christmas.

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  15. Each mid-December my wife and I get out an old chocolate chip and walnut cookie recipe and set up a baking factory in our kitchen and bake about 15 dozen batches of cookies (many are QC tested as they cool on the kitchen island) While we bake and eat we watch Bing Crosby in the old 1942 movie "Holiday Inn". This will be the 16th year of this tradition.

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  16. Change of plans, of course given the global health situation. Will be just 4 of us for this Thanksgiving. Jackets will be worn for Thanksgiving dinner--the tweedier the better.

    Thanksgiving table will be set with great china, sparkling silver, and crystal. No compromise regardless of the virus. We will dine and celebrate this year, gosh darnit!

    Christmas is still up in the air as far as dinner and dress. We will no doubt set gorgeous tables throughout the season and enjoy it all as much as possible. There is simply no room for compromise, really.

    May we all know peace and good health this Thanksgiving and may we all remember the many blessings we are given each and every day. Share as you are able and remember those in need. It is our obligation to help those who are seeing great difficulty this year.

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    1. What a beautiful sentiment. Hope it is OK if I share it.

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    2. thank you! that would be fine.

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  17. Going to the Inn at Little Washington this week after flying in to DC. Live in West Palm Beach so Christmas will find me in tartan trousers by the pool. I am not visiting anyone due to COVID. All family is back in Texas. Ups and downs.

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    1. Ah, the most famous restaurant in Virginia. When we're in the area, we always stop by the little café just across the street from the Inn.

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  18. Growing up Catholic Christmas Eve was Midnight Mass and Oyster stew.

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  19. I usually take my embroidered corduroys out for a spin at Thanksgiving. We will not be doing much differently, other than greatly reduced attendance.

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  20. this year will be thanksgiving by zoom with spouse's extended family b/c the older relatives have significant health issues & one of the three daughters' families is actively ill with COVID-19. we're communally preparing all the food - one turkey, one vat of stuffing, mashed potatoes etc., & redistributing among those who are local so we can dine 'together' despite the health barriers.

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  21. Thanksgiving will be just me, my wife and our two kids (16 and 19). We intend to do a Zoom session with my father-in-law's side of the family. Not really planning to dress up more than normal this year. I'm already a sweaters-and-OCBDs kind of guy, and that seems about the appropriate level for this year's holiday. Christmas will be similar, I imagine. Looking forward to fancy parties next year.

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  22. Yep, a more formally set table, and the three of us will be 'dressed' accordingly for Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year's dinners. They are special occasions after all.

    Best Regards,

    H-U

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  23. Well, I hate to be the odd man at the party, but we're doing the usual as usual this Thanksgiving, and Grandma is insisting on eating with us. We did tell her our hidden viral presence might very well kill her before Christmas, but she has insisted on attending, telling us that she's an "Adult" and can "Make up her own dam* mind!" Incredulous, really.

    Meanwhile, our epidemiologist uncle has been visiting from Switzerland - don't even ask about quarantining him. Uncle makes fantastic Spitzbuben, (and no, that's not a dirty word; it's a family recipe from Die Schweiz) and Gran said if anything is going to kill her this holiday season, it will be too many Spitzbuben washed down with rum and eggnog.

    Meanwhile, while we were all trying quite hard to be so dam* safe, avoiding life, no more cigars and brandy, out with the foie gras, no drinking and driving - doing our part in this corona-kabuki, our college-age daughter managed to drive the Rover over a boulder, mangling my driveshaft and shattering the windshield with a tree branch (and yes, she's fine, thank you) - but my dam* car is now a wreck. The anger I felt inside upon seeing my vehicle in that state...

    So Happy Thanksgiving and Holidays, everyone. We are clearly dangerous people to know, so I wouldn't do as we do, but I would encourage everyone to be thankful and grateful and kind to others; whither empathy in this strange year? -- Chas.

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