HALIFAX -- With COVID-19 breaking up the Atlantic Bubble, and causing new restrictions on gathering, Maritimers are preparing to have hard conversations with their families.
Christmas is always a busy time for Billy Reyno, a father of two. He spoke with CTV News while buying a Christmas tree in Dartmouth, N.S.
His daughter, six-year-old Ellie, came along to help. Normally, she would be thrilled to visit her grandparents in New Brunswick this time of year.
“I’m so excited,” she said.
But due to COVID-19 travel restrictions, plans have changed.
“This year it looks like we will have immediately family,” said Billy Reyno. “And maybe gather virtually instead of in person.”
Dr, Todd Hatchett, a microbiology expert in Halifax, says there’s good reason for things to feel different this Christmas.
“The last thing you want to do is give COVID to somebody else,” said Dr. Hatchett. “That would be the worst Christmas gift ever.”
He adds it’s important to keep crowds small at dinners and parties.
“This is not going to be a normal Christmas season,” he said. “You cannot have the large parties and get-togethers that we would normally enjoy this year unfortunately because of COVID.”
As for sharing Christmas baking – Dr. Hatchett says the risk of catching COVID-19 from homemade food is small.
“It’s more that you have the people in the area sharing the food than the food itself,” he says.
On the subject of how to best manage expectations for Christmas gatherings, CTV News reached out to Julie Blais Comeau, an etiquette expert who owns “Etiquette Julie,” a training and development firm.
“I help people … and I enlighten them so they won’t embarrass themselves,” said Blais Comeau with a laugh, describing what she does.
Etiquette expert Julie Blais Comeau is shown in this file photo.
Given border and crowd size restrictions, Blais Comeau says it’s important to be strategic in how we tell people if we can’t see them this year.
“You want to make them feel special,” she said.
Blais Comeau also says the medium is the message.
“This is not one of those ‘e-vites,’ it’s not a text message,” she said. “You want to validate.”
Blais Comeau adds when we communicate expectations for this Christmas, we can look positively ahead to next year, with hope that things will be much different than they are now.
