Holiday Post 2020: Traditions, Manners, and Miscellany

Welcome to my 2020 series of holiday posts. I am not letting the pandemic or the rest of the shit show that is 2020 stop me from doing this. Last day of work for me should be December 18th, which is a bit earlier than usual, but hey, I'll take it. 

 

As a reminder, this series of posts is where I take a little time to gather some items of interest I have seen during the holiday season to share with my four readers, mainly for entertainment. Let's start then with holiday traditions, manners, and other miscellany. 

 

Traditions and manners

 

 

• A big deal in 2020 has been the ability, or lack of ability, to go home for holidays. We were all warned to avoid travel for Turkey Day, which a lot of people proceeded to ignore anyhow, to avoid spikes in coronavirus infection. I am sure Christmas is going to make things worse as people once again ignore advice and guidelines to stay home. If you are one of the responsible people, you may struggle a bit with telling others that you are staying home (or you are not hosting anyone from outside your home). This article from VICE gives some advice on "How to Tell Your Family You Are Not Coming Home for the Holidays." An important point the article makes is for you to make the decision that works for you as soon as possible and make sure you communicate it to others as soon as possible as well. Do not leave it to the last minute. Assuming the promised vaccines work, and enough people do get the vaccine, I hope people will not need to have that conversation for the 2021 holidays. Until ten, stay home if you can, talk to family on phone, via Skype, Zoom, etc. 
• VICE also has a nice piece on "How to Make Socially Distanced Holidays Feel Special." It came out in time for Turkey Day, but it has plenty of good advice for Christmas and the other holidays going on this season as well. The article looks at this through the eyes of Judaism. As the author writes, "Jews worldwide have wrestled with the mandate to balance safety and celebration, we have learned… a lot, through the process, both in my family constellation and also globally." May as well put the lessons to good use. 
• Keeping your mental health during these Hard Times and the holidays is important, so here are a few tips on "How to Protect Your Mental Health During the Pandemic Holiday Season" via Cosmopolitan. Among the good bits of advice are go outside when you can, accept that you may not be OK this season, and if you need help, get it. 
• Alison Green, of Ask a Manager, answers the question of whether offices should have a holiday party during the pandemic or not over at Slate. I personally say no and done, but some people have got to have an office/workplace party somehow. So this article goes for those folks. Much of the advice is to take the party virtually. The article seems to assume these workplaces are fairly lush with funds given suggestions such as: offering cocktail making kits (so people can have a cocktail while Zooming), gift boxes for employees, and other perks. All I have to say about that is must be nice. 
• Since many of us are staying home for the holidays, maybe you want to watch some classic holiday specials. A lot of people were pissed off that Apple scooped up the Charlie Brown classics and made them inaccessible; they somewhat relented, or more likely figured bad publicity was not worth it, so there are options to see them. In addition, this Lifehacker article highlights a few holiday specials from older days that may be of interest, and you may be able to stream them online for free. I often watch a version of A Christmas Carol over the holidays, and this year I am trying to watch a a few Christmas/holiday themed horror movies for the fun of it. Those I am finding via TubiTv or other free streaming services. 
• In trivia. 
•  The U.S. Census Bureau has their 2020 Holiday Season fact sheet. Among the findings, did you know that $32.9 billion is "value of U.S. imports of Christmas ornaments from China for 2019. China led the way with 92.4% of the U.S. total imports of Christmas ornaments."
•  The folks at PNC are once again calculating the Christmas Price Index for 2020. 
• On another bit of trivia, over in the UK someone calculated how much it would cost to build a real life size Gingerbread House. Via The Drinks Business.
  

Christmas Tree/Decorations/Other objects 

 

 

•  12 Tomatoes has some interesting pieces about holiday trees.
• If you choose a natural tree, here are some tips to help it survive the holiday season in your home. In our home, we have been doing an artificial tree for years, and it works fine for us. 
• Here are some humorous photos of Christmas trees. Yes, it does include one of those library holiday trees made out of books because you have to have at least one of those. 
• Some folks are making holiday trees with succulent plants. I thought that was cute. 
•  Ever wonder about the economics of Christmas trees? The Hustle has an article discussing just that. In the U.S., it is a multi-billion dollar business. They "spoke with Christmas tree farm owners, ecologists, and representatives from both the real and artificial tree markets." This is a pretty good overview of the business and where the money is. 
• Decorating the tree. Here is a Santa Claus tree ornament for 2020: jolly old St. Nick bringing safety supplies and PPE. Via Boing Boing.
• The Reprobate features some Christmas photos from years past, back in the day when people used an actual camera, with film, to take photos. 
• For many, an "ugly" sweater is a necessary holiday tradition. Retro Network takes a look at a few of those sweaters. 
• Many families do the "Elf on the Shelf" thing, the elf that watches kids and will snitch their bad behavior to Santa. I think the whole thing is ridiculous and basically conditioning kids to accept living in a surveillance state, but hey, you do you. Anyhow, if I am getting something to keep the kids in line, I am putting a Krampus on the shelf. Via iHorror.