How this Pandemic Has Unaffected Our Family Gatherings and Social Circles

Photo by Brett Jordan on Unsplash

In Canada, we just celebrated our Thanksgiving Day a couple of weekends ago. With the pandemic gaining force, the province’s health officer recommended keeping our family gatherings to less than ten people. It appears the way the contagion is spreading; I can pretty much predict that is what the authorities will say for the Christmas holiday as well.

For many who look forward to family get-togethers, this represents quite a disappointment. In European countries where families make it a point of getting together on special occasions, these are challenging times. Our North American culture though to not visit a family member, does not create the same hardship. Our parents lived through a me-first generation when divorce was common-place, leaving the kids shuffling from one parent to another during holidays. Those kids were the lucky ones, as many divorced couples had one of the spouses take off without even taking the time to visit their offspring. Usually, when this occurred, the uncles and aunts stopped seeing their nephews and nieces feeling uncomfortable about the situation. They had to side with their own family when the divorce took place.

For example, as soon as my parents split up, that was pretty much the last time I saw cousins growing up with during the early years until much later. Grandma and Grandpa Sunday dinners ended abruptly. I remembered how we used to go there on Sunday, and then everyone sat around the television and watched the Ed Sullivan Show.

My Mom could have picked up the family traditions when my Dad and her divorced. There was an opportunity with her new partner, who had a considerable family, to have these big dinners. Still, she was not the one to entertain big gatherings, probably because she was not the best cook. With my Mom, she preferred to eat somewhere else than invite a bunch of people over and have to cook.

The holiday meal I have to say I enjoyed the most was the Christmas dinner I had at my Dad’s with his wife cooking the turkey. That was quite a feast. At least she and my Dad stuck together, which only helped the two boys they had. One married into a big family, and the other, even though he is still single, remains pretty close to family members and has lived with his partner for…