For many this holiday season looked very different than normal. If you were in British Columbia it was advised that you should not have social gatherings and spend the holidays with those in your household. This meant that we didn’t travel to go see friends and family this year. Instead we had Zoom and FaceTime calls.
With us not being able to go to Vancouver for the holidays my dad sent us Christmas Eve and Christmas Day dinner. My aunt also added in desserts! Harbour Air is a great resource for mailing items that need to get somewhere in a short period of time or is something perishable like food. The flights are around 20 minutes depending on weather. Harbour Air also has a promotion going on over the holidays to ship packages for a flat rate of $20! Was a super helpful deal to send our Christmas presents over to Vancouver. They arrived the same day we sent them and knew that they would arrive on time. Canada Post works great if you are able to get everything together weeks in advance and nothing you are sending is a perishable item. Check out flight schedules at Harbour Air Schedules.
On Christmas morning my family typically gets together for a huge brunch at a restaurant. Last year there were 44 people at brunch. As we were unable to go for a big family dim sum, I made us brunch at home. We had potstickers and sumai with various homemade sauces. If I couldn’t go out to eat, the least I could do is keep the tradition alive at home and make it myself.
We did gift opening a little different this year as everything this year as been on trend for. We had a FaceTime call and a Zoom call so that we could talk to and see our families. Was a unique experience watching everyone in their own homes. It did however make it a lot easier to put presents away because they were already in your own home! There wasn’t trying to moving things from one place to another. There have been years that I have gone back to Vancouver without a vehicle and only have a small suitcase with me when I flew home.
We were fortunate to get a decent number of gift cards from our families. They will really help with our regular shopping! I was super lucky and got a serger for Christmas! This will up my sewing game a lot. I have some great ideas for next year’s Christmas gifts. The challenge will be to get them all done on time. This year I tried to make most of them, but was not able to reach 100%. I feel I got to about an 85% handmade gift giving this year. The hardest part of making gifts 100% handmade is the wrapping/packaging. I do try to use boxes that can be reused again and agin as opposed to wrapping paper. I also make bags when I can as well. This year I didn’t use any wrapping paper or ribbon to package gifts. The holidays can produce so much unnecessary waste.
Next year, hopefully the world will have sorted out the Covid virus and we will be able to travel to see friends and family again. The holidays were different this year, but gave us the opportunity to create new traditions. Our friends and families are no longer a stones throw away like they were when we were growing up in our hometown. However, we know that they love us and that we are in their thoughts. Other ways we stay connected not just over the holidays are to send cards and letters in the mail, call/video chat, and send various other surprises to them. We would prefer to be with our friends and families in person, but sometimes distance makes that difficult even when Covid is not an additional hurdle.
We hope that everyone had a wonderful holiday season thus far and will have a great rest of 2020 and a happy New Year!