Consider This from NPR - How The Pandemic Is Reshaping Our Holiday Traditions

Episode Date: December 25, 2020

Nothing could stop Christmas from coming. Not even a pandemic. But this year many of our holiday traditions look a bit different. NPR business correspondent Alina Selyuk reports on how hand sanitizer and face masks have become popular stocking stuffers this year. And we asked you to send in stories about how you're rethinking your celebrations as previous plans have been put on hold. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Mary Lopez and her family in California have been giving pandemic-inspired presents all year. I had made a joke that if I want anything for my birthday, it's toilet paper, because it was really scary there for a while. Well, be careful what you wish for, because her daughter obliged with an industrial-sized pack. Lopez returned the favor with a themed gift basket. I looked for months, but I got a big bottle of Clorox cleaning spray, a thing of Clorox wipes, two wine glasses filled with candy, and a bottle of wine. All the essentials for a pandemic survival kit, which she is now giving out to friends as holiday gifts. Lopez spoke with NPR business correspondent Alina Selyuk, and it wasn't hard to find others whose holiday gift-giving has taken a very 2020 spin,

like Ritesh Ranjan in Northern Virginia, who's giving bulk-sized packs of sanitizing wipes to some friends who said they couldn't find any. I wouldn't say it's a joke. It's a kind of serious gift. Hopefully it will remind them of the conversation we have had about it. He says he feels a little guilty about snatching up all those wipes. Kathleen Murray in Virginia Beach is impressed he found any at all. Maybe that person could put me on their Christmas list. Murray made advent calendars for her family, little daily gifts, often chocolate, but this year they also include Christmas-themed face masks and hand sanitizers. If you could give anyone a gift, like you want to give them safety. Like, I would love to be able to give them all the vaccine, but you obviously can't do that.

Consider this. Nothing could stop Christmas from coming. Not even a pandemic. But this year, many of our holiday traditions look a bit different. From NPR, I'm Ari Shapiro. It's Friday, December 25th. Merry Christmas. Hip-hop and America's prisons have both grown exponentially. Is this a coincidence or is it by design? I'm Sydney Madden. Listen now to Louder Than a Riot, the new podcast from NPR Music, where we trace the collision of rhyme and punishment in America. All 11 episodes are available right now. Go binge it. It's Consider This from NPR. We know you know that this year's Christmas isn't the same.

Even here at NPR, we have canceled our annual gift exchange and Chinese takeout, and there's a good chance your traditions have taken on a new shape too. We asked listeners to share stories about how they are rethinking their celebrations to help bring a little light into a dark year. So heat up a hot chocolate or spike your eggnog and take a listen. My name is Juan Cardoza Okendo. I live in Houston, Texas, and I'm 30 years old. My parents are from Puerto Rico.

In Puerto Rico and in some parts of the Caribbean, we do pajarandas, which is our version of caroling where you get together with friends and family at midnight, and then you just go house to house unannounced. And you sing at people's doors and you ask them to let you in and then they have to feed you. You know people just being silly and singing and drinking and eating and then everybody whose house you go into you invite them to go along with you and the goal is to make it till sunrise. So I have a Puerto Rican Christmas music playlist,

and these past few weeks, as my boyfriend and I have been driving around doing errands, we've been singing our favorite songs from the playlist and just transporting ourselves to a pajaranda in Puerto Rico. My name is Brandy Welvert, and I live in Rock Island, Illinois, and I'm 41. Every year, my best friends and I host a girls' night gift exchange. We play a fun game where we swap gifts

and we steal gifts, and it gets kind of rowdy, where we swap gifts and we steal gifts and it gets kind of rowdy and we have drinks and we have food and it's just a really fun way to kind of unwind during the holidays. And we've done that for 13 years and since we can't really pile, you know, 40 people in my friend's living room, we're coming up with an online edition. We're calling it our 14th Annual Girls' Night Gift Exchange COVID Edition. So it's kind of cool because some of the people who moved away and haven't been able to attend are actually going to participate this year. And they're like shipping gifts to us.

And then we'll have to quit turnaround and ship gifts back to them. So it'll be kind of a fun way to get them back in. I'm Kenneth Copperwood. I'm 38 years old. and I was born and raised in Nebraska and I live currently in Omaha, Nebraska. Some of the best things about the holidays, a friend from college and I always participate in the annual Tube of Christmas concert. There's a band of about 40 to 50 people in Omaha at least. It's a free concert at the Johnson Art Museum. And it's something that I've been doing since 2016,

which was unfortunately it's when my father passed away. And before that I didn't have a tuba to play, but I was, my mom gave me his tuba and I was able to then join my friend and kind of do it in honor of my dad and our friendship, we've been friends for about 20 years. So our plan is to have a tuba Christmas, but do it in sort of a caroling format where we somehow strap our tubas onto ourselves, you know, dress up in full regalia and put Christmas lights on our tuba and kind of deck them out. And then we're going to go door to door in our neighborhood and tuba carol

at a safe social distance from the people in the house and from each other. My name is Tacey Quinn and I live in Bernardsville, New Jersey, and I am 42. In a normal year, when we travel to see my side of the family and my mom, we're Norwegian on that side. And so what we like to do is make something called kringla, which definitely at Christm Christmas time, we love to get together and make this treat that just reminds us, particularly my grandmother. This year, we can't travel. We're not going to. So what I decided is we should embrace this idea of Friluftsliv, which is this Norwegian ethos of getting outside no matter the weather. And it can be a new way that we're honoring our family. And maybe they can be outside where they are too, under the same sky,

having winter adventures. I think going forward, we're going to embrace Free Loops Live and continue to challenge ourselves to get out at least once a week, but already I'm noticing the difference with our ability to be grateful for each day, be grateful for the fresh air. We have done really simple things like taking a hike. We've also done things that are a little more special. We did a family trail ride on horseback and it turned out to be probably the most relaxing thing ever. These horses, they are just gentle giants. My name is Martha Cecilio-Vidia. I'm 35 years old and I live in Miami. I haven't hugged my mom since March because my husband's a nurse. And so I bought one of those inflatable costumes. It's a dancing hippo to surprise her on Christmas day that she can hug me with that costume on.

So that'll be our first hug in about a year. We are Colombian and I don't know where the tradition comes from, but I would say 10 minutes before the clock strikes 12, we pack bags and at the stroke of midnight, give kisses and hugs. And then we run around the block yelling, screaming, singing with our luggage, like 40 of us, 40 Colombians to celebrate the new year, but also to make sure that there will be travel and new experiences in the new year. I'm pretty sure the kisses and hugs part at midnight won't be happening this year. It'll be more of waves and fist pumps. But this year in particular, I've realized that the tradition of running around the block with our luggage has actually nothing to do with travel,

but has to do with time together. And so I think this year it's rooted in this place of the promise of this getting better. That was Martha Ovadia, Tacey Quinn, Kenneth Copperwood, Brandy Welvert, and Juan Cardoza Okendo. We asked them if this year's traditions will change anything about Christmases of the future. It's important to observe our traditions in ways we can and find ways to connect.

My boyfriend and I, this December is like we've been a year together. So it's all like a long line of tradition that I can continue with him. Maybe we can start a new tradition of doing tuba caroling and maybe I can convince my family when the kids get a little older. Going forward, I know we're going to be much more intentional about making that family time. This silly tradition is actually a place where I'm rooting my hope. It means something. I think I'll always think of it differently. This piece was produced by Janaki Mehta, thanks to everyone who shared their stories with us.

However you're spending Christmas, we hope you stay safe and healthy, and that the promise of a new year brings you hope. You're listening to Consider This from NPR. I'm Ari Shapiro.