How Have Holiday Traditions Changed This Year for Ridgewood’s Students, Families, and the Town as a Whole?

COVID-19 has affected our lives greatly. Because of the virus, we have had to transition to remote learning. We also had to start wearing masks out in public and follow social distancing guidelines. Like everything else, holiday traditions have also seen a dramatic shift. Many people are not able to follow their normal holiday traditions due to the risk of spreading the virus. Many Ridgewood students and families have needed to improvise creative ways to celebrate these holidays while staying as safe as possible.

Many Ridgewood students and families had to celebrate Thanksgiving differently. People were not able to have as many relatives and friends over to their house to celebrate. One RHS student said, “this year of Thanksgiving was very different for me. We usually have a lot of our cousins and grandparents over for Thanksgiving, but we were not able to do that this year. I just stayed home and only celebrated with my family.”

Not only were Thanksgiving traditions affected by COVID-19, but Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanza, and New Year’s celebrations are being affected as well. Just like Thanksgiving, people will be restricted from celebrating with others, such as friends and cousins. Since Thanksgiving and Black Friday just passed, and people are indoors more for the winter, COVID-19 cases are skyrocketing. This makes it even more dangerous to celebrate the winter holidays with many others. Another RHS student said, “I am going to have to celebrate Christmas at home this year due to the number of COVID cases going up. Going away to celebrate will be too risky.”

Even though COVID-19 has affected many holiday traditions, people have to celebrate with who they have. Despite the holidays being different this year, people may develop new, enjoyable holiday traditions in order to adapt.

Michael Hanna
Staff Writer

Graphic: Vivian Yuan