A Pandemic Christmas
When I started this blog last March, I honestly hoped that I’d be wrapped up writing this thing by mid summer and that the pandemic would be over. I’ve discovered I don’t have Nostradamus like predictability. But here we are, December and a second deadlier wave underway worldwide, combined with a new, far more transmissible strain unleashed for good measure – in the words of the great Charlton Heston “…damn you London…damn you all to hell!” (or something to that effect). As with previous pandemics they appear to follow the same path. First wave, followed by a second and a third. Not to be a debbie downer, but this is hardly surprising, we have been told as much since April. As they say in the boy scouts “be prepared”. More practically, wear a mask, social distance, wash hands, don’t travel if you can avoid it. Until we get a majority of the population vaccinated, this is how it will be. But hey – there’s a vaccine! That should be the highlight here. Buckle up and put our heads down for the next few months and we can get through this.
Meanwhile, it’s Christmas. This one is very different. Mercifully the annual mad shopping dashes have given way to a more modest approach. We have mostly shopped local to help the business in our neighborhood. But I think from our kids perspective, it appears to be Christmas as normal. There’s a tree. Fearing there wouldn’t be any trees this year, I went and bought a fake one. The day it arrived, the Canadians set up shop down the block with their real trees. My son was disgusted it wasn’t tall enough and complained the lobby tree was bigger. Hey buddy if you want an 8 foot fake tree you can come up with the $600 + to pay for it. The upside, I won’t be cleaning pine needles from my living room all the way down to the lobby of our building this year. Plus we got a Fauci ornament to remind us of the annus horribilis that was 2020.
Then there’s New York City. The weather apparently consulted with Santa and delivered us a white Christmas, giving us all that movie like magical feel. Santa sure is a master of distraction. The city outdid itself by putting up and even adding creative Christmas decorations around town. Made more spectacular by the general lack of crowds. Usually we would be mobbed by tourists and locals alike, making visiting any of this a dreaded experience and somewhat impossible with little kids. This year, we felt like we had conquered Manhattan and stole it for ourselves.
May you all reading this have a great holiday, put behind the miserable that was 2020 and look forward to better days in 2021. For they are surely coming.
There are 18,910,00 cases of coronavirus in the US and at least 326,345 people have died, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.
Meanwhile, enjoy some scenes from around midtown this holiday season below.
