The holidays are traditionally a time when family and friends get together to celebrate their year. They carry out religious holiday traditions; normally involving huge feasts that always leave leftovers. 

Many families have traditions of Thanksgiving dinners and baking Christmas cookies while others have traditions of visiting light shows and volunteering at soup kitchens. One of the biggest traditions of the holidays is traveling to meet family in order to have these big family meals. 

Bradley senior Maggie Sullivan is among those who hit the road. “Our biggest tradition is going to Ohio for the Christmas holiday,” said Sullivan.

The majority of Sullivan’s extended family lives in Ohio while her immediate family lives in Illinois. Therefore, every year they travel to Ohio to celebrate Christmas as one. Things are different this year, and the Sullivan’s aren’t taking any risks. “We are deciding to play it safe and stay home (for the holidays),” said Sullivan.

Travelers all across the country seemed to play it safe, too. According to tsa.gov, traveling numbers were down significantly from 2019 during the week of Thanksgiving. This is also to be expected for the upcoming holidays as well.

TSA information supported by Statistica data over the number of travelers.

Covid-19 has taken a toll on people’s holiday plans. 2020 has been a wild ride for everyone. College students may be experiencing the worst of it. College is supposed to be a place for students to find new beginnings and make new friends. 

Meanwhile, most students have been stuck in their dorm rooms like Elle Sutter, a freshman at North Central College in Naperville, IL. “It’s been really difficult because I live in Chicago where everything is super strict right now,” said Sutter.

The Sutter family dealt with Coronavirus cases throughout the house, so they spent Thanksgiving away from each other. On the other hand, they look forward to returning to their normal traditions for the Christmas season. “My sisters and I love baking, so we always bake a ton of Christmas cookies,” said Sutter.

Baking cookies has been her favorite tradition, and Elle Sutter said she hopes she can share them with her extended family this Christmas. Since her family already dealt with Covid, Sutter hopes her relatives feel safe enough to celebrate with them this year.

Freshman Sarah Meyle also expressed her struggles to uphold her family traditions during the holiday season. Under normal circumstances, Meyle would carry on a similar tradition to the Sutter’s and partake in baking cookies with her grandparents. This year did not provide that opportunity to see her grandparents.

Meyle did attempt to make the most of the situation, though. “We just did a zoom call where my cousin and I baked most of the cookies, and we discovered why we were only allowed to do icing duty instead of baking the cookies (with my grandparents),” said Meyle, jokingly.

Unfortunately, many holidays and traditions are not being celebrated to the extent they have been in the past. The Sullivan’s are not making the trek to Ohio to see family, the Sutter’s were forced to stay home for Thanksgiving, and Sarah Meyle couldn’t bake cookies with her grandparents. 

Senior Devan Wilbur has also seen the effects of the pandemic on her holiday experiences. Wilbur normally spends all holidays with her family, but this Thanksgiving was a little different. Similar to the Sutter family, Wilbur’s parents had to isolate the whole week of Thanksgiving due to her father testing positive for the Coronavirus.

She spent the holiday with her brother, his wife and his wife’s parents. Luckily, she was able to spend it with some type of family, but it was her first Thanksgiving without her parents. “I opted to meet with a smaller group of people who had been confirmed negative for the virus,” said Wilbur.

Wilbur also mentioned that a zoom meeting or a simple drop off of goods would have been the safest route.

In times of struggle and distancing, families all across the country are fighting to keep their Christmas spirit alive. Although it may be different, new traditions will have opportunities to present themselves. Happy Holidays from the Simple Foodie Family.