Making Virtual Fall Holiday Memories and Traditions
This coming holiday season, technology will unite and connect families and friends without leaving the safety of home. And families who can gather in-person may just find simplicity will bring special life-long memories. Here are a few fun ideas for creating memorable – maybe new – traditions.
HALLOWEEN
Halloween can still be fun for the kids and the whole family. It will just take a bit more planning and creativity.
Drive-by Trick-or-Treating
Coordinate with the neighborhood and have folks drive by like the Covid-19 birthday parades. Gently throw candy at costumed kids in their yards. This reverse trick-or-treating is a win-win. Check out 20 Ideas for Halloween During COVID for more fun activities
Weird Science
The kids will love being a mad scientist for the day. Use household items to mix up some Vampire Slime, Frankenstein’s Phlegm, Ghost Rockets, or Pumpkin Playdough.
Ghoulish Delights
Dinner will never be the same after serving Feet-loaf (meatloaf) or Eye-Ball Pasta made with sliced mozzarella, Spider Pizza or the classic Mummy Dog. You might even try your hand at decorating a haunted gingerbread house.
Mask Up for Halloween
Buy a plain cloth face mask and add a few frightful shapes or fun patterns like spider-webs or ghosts.
Spooky Halloween Movie Marathon
Get out the candy corn and popcorn for an afternoon or evening of spooky stories! From “It’s the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown” for the little ones to “Halloween” for those ready to up their level of terror. You can also find Halloween themed television episodes like the Simpson’s Treehouse of Horror or the Good Witch Halloween.
Strictly for Adults
Host a virtual wine and candy pairing tasting party.
THANKSGIVING
Thanksgiving – that best of holidays when gathering with family and friends leads to eating way too much – can still happen this year, but it’s going to be a bit different.
So how do you still have a semi-normal Thanksgiving in 2020? By now most of us are accustomed to the whole virtual celebration thing. But hosting virtual Thanksgiving requires a little more planning and coordination. Below are a few helpful hints. For more fun things to do check out “How to Celebrate Thanksgiving Online Because Social Distancing Is Still a Thing.”
Plan Your Virtual Visit
Send invitations to your friends and the entire family to gather at a specific time during Thanksgiving for a virtual video call celebration while everyone is safe at home. “Zoom” live-action during your turkey dinner. Share stories. Watch and listen to the collective conversations to celebrate with your siblings, parents, distant relatives, and friends.
Have a Zoom Cooking Class
It’s your first time making all the Thanksgiving’s goodies without the help of the family’s best or most experienced cook. Don’t worry, you’ve got this! Ask the holiday chef-extraordinaire to share his or her secrets during a virtual cooking class. The newbies can follow along in their own kitchens. It might just feel like you’re all together!
Drinks
If you’re ordering in, forget the cooking class and go straight for the drinks. Video chat while mixing up fall-themed cocktail, like these Apple Cider Ginger Bourbon Smashes. Here’s the recipe:
- 1/4 cup apple cider
- 1/4 cup ginger beer or ginger ale
- 2 ounces bourbon
- 1 teaspoon orange zest
- 1 tablespoon orange juice
- 1/8 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
Combine apple juice, ginger beer, bourbon, orange zest and juice, cinnamon and ground cloves in a cocktail shaker. Shake until combined. Strain into a glass filled with ice and top with a cinnamon stick or sliced apple.
Play Zoom Guess Who?
Have everyone submit two anonymous memes or message cards describing something excellent and unusual that happened to them in 2020. Add a third card with an aspiration for something they had hoped to do in 2020 but were unable to do. And one more identifying the best book, favorite TV show, movie, song, or event they enjoyed during the past 12 months. Then have everyone guess who wrote each Guess Who?
Set Up an Early Secret Santa
It’s been a long year so why not indulge in a little early holiday gift giving and getting. A few weeks before Thanksgiving (November 26) use an online name generator like Elfster to assign your family members a secret Santa. Set a price limit, and have everyone mail their gifts so they’ll arrive in time for Turkey Day. After dinner, do the big reveal over FaceTime.
Challenge Everyone to a Virtual Board Game
This year take your family’s favorite board game digital. Lots of games like Clue, Catan, and Risk have app versions where you can invite others to play.
Three words: Pie Eating Contest!
Totally fun! Everyone bakes a pie, then goes head-to-head on Zoom to see who finishes theirs the fastest. And yes, you do have to eat with your hands behind your back.
