We decided a few weeks ago to cancel our family Thanksgiving dinner, so it will just be my husband and myself. I got us a 10 lb turkey. And after agonizing on the decision for a while, once it was made I am now actually looking forward to a laid back easy dinner and day. First time ever!

For Christmas we'll be sending gift cards and buying some gifts to be dropped off for our littlest grands. We hope to be able to do a video chat with them while they open them.

We will probably visit my parents without anyone else being there. Another very laid back holiday and another first for us.

We won't be doing Thanksgiving with anyone. I'm still decorating for Christmas however if we see family or not we'll wait and see.

I am not doing anything for the holidays, but I haven't in years. When my dad died in 1968, the family stopped getting together at my parents' house, and things just went downhill from there. My daughter grew up and moved away, and there are no grandchildren, and my mother died in '94 and since then most of the family has also passed. I only have two nephews and a niece, and they live a distance away. So it is basically just another day. I will probably cook something a little extra, that we really like. No plans except staying home.

Since I am single and on a fixed income, I'd just as soon skip the holidays every year. It's just another day in my book :-) But family pressures often make that difficult. I am actually looking forward to them this year as COVID is a perfectly good excuse not to participate!

I do enjoy the seasonal foods however so will be cooking, but just for myself and the dog. Thanksgiving leftovers are about the only leftovers I really enjoy - love those turkey sandwiches!! - so a scaled down dinner is planned. Turkey breast, dressing, roasted yams and spinach souffle.

I am making a batch of Chex mix today!

I love the holidays. Christmas is my favorite time of year. Thanksgiving's warmth and coziness is wonderful-one of this country's best innovations. I love any excuse to gather and celebrate. This year we will only celebrate with our household, which fortunately is large still, but none of our usual outings, trips, parties, etc. Just us at home, so we will try to find some new ways to mark the season. We'll read A Christmas Carol a-loud instead of seeing the play performed at the ACT, for example.

PS One thing different, we have ordered our Turkey dinner from a favorite restaurant. I don't feel like spending so much time cooking, though it is an easy meal. Plus, I think it's a good idea to support restaurants when at all possible these days. And since I will not eat in a restaurant until this plague is behind us, take out is as good as it's going to get.

I work on Thanksgiving day. My daughter and I had out Thanksgiving dinner yesterday: takoyaki

I'm THRILLED not to have to do the holidays this year. I can't eat huge quantities, and have always disliked big, drawn-out meals.

We usually cruise this time of year. Last time we were home for Thanksgiving was 2015, and before that, 2012. No biggy. No family within 1000 miles.

We tried a Christmas tree once and the cat had other ideas. Nothing for this year.

We just had our January 21-day cruise cancelled, so we're sorta bummed.

Holiday dinners have been just my DD (since last year, her SO also) and myself for many years - if I even had the day off. This year she is the one to be working Thanksgiving. We are still debating whether to do dinner on her next day off after. I was going to invite my brother to join me in my traditional T-day hike (in place of 4-miler race), but not sure about that, either, since I don't know how diligent he has been with masking and distancing. I will attend church virtually - not the same, but it is an integral part of the day's tradition for me.

I never decorate for Thanksgiving (or Halloween or any other holiday) but I do for Christmas and don't find it a chore - it cheers me through the darkest part of the year. I may skip the live tree, but I will certainly decorate the porch, the fireplace, and the shelf in the family room. Nothing elaborate, never has been.

I haven't done a TG dinner (big type w/ family) since the late 90s. I'm relieved not to be doing that anymore. I'll do my normal for me - fix those things I like for me (and my dog). I spread the cooking over about 3 days, so come TG day It's all cooked. I enjoy it this way after all of those yrs of doing it all (that really gave me an understanding of what my poor working mom did all of those yrs when I was growing up). I've had my Christmas tree up for 22 yrs all yr around. It's about 10" tall and plastic with little flocked birds on it. I think I need to take it outside and hose it down soon... It was my MILs. I gave my big tree away back in 97. I only buy a gift for my sister and my pup (and sometimes myself). and only the gkids under 18 get something from me. they get $s and that will end when they turn 18. I quit buying for them and sending stuff to them many yrs ago. I send out 5-8 cards to family and 3 good friends. A few times over the past 15 yrs I've gone to my sister's (she lives down the road) and those yrs I don't cook anything but the dressing (at home for me). I bring home leftovers from her house. My BIL does the cooking, he is a good cook but he does not make our family dressing. 2 ys ago they had pizza for Christmas and that was great (and I brought home a slice). My nephew and his wife were there from the SE and I enjoyed visiting with them (I hadn't seem them in many yrs). I spent about 2 hrs there and came home. As much as I enjoyed the visit and food with them, I was glad to get home to my house and my pup.

I won't do anything differently than I have in the past 22 yrs.

i'm glad i'm not the only one looking forward to skipping the holidays! other than gifts for my son, his wife, and my 4 year old grandson, i won't be exchanging gifts with anyone and not having that pressure is a welcome relief. thanksgiving will be spent with my dogs and Christmas remains to be seen. might make a quick visit but i've been seeing them pretty much every weekend anyway.

I fix a HUGE Thanksgiving meal every year. This year is no different/just not having anyone over. We love left overs! I freeze most of it. Then make turkey pot pies. Hot turkey with gravy sandwiches. Pumpkin cheesecake for breakfast. ☺ Yay!

Our neighborhood is having a Christmas decorating contest. Lots of lovely displays to enjoy. ☺

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. It’s not unusual for us to have 12-20 here for the afternoon. This year, there will be 4. And we will be eating outside. Sigh. We do what we have to do.

I used to love the holidays and now I really don’t enjoy it. This is mostly because my family has grown and drifted away. My nieces have their own families and in-laws. My older son lives in CA and does not come home. He’s not married and I get tired of meeting one hot looking girlfriend after another. My mother is so old she doesn’t know what day it is and if we didn’t tell her, she’d never know it was a holiday. That leaves my younger son and his SO. She usually goes home to her family, so that leaves my son and me staring at each other. I’d be happy to go to bed the day before TG and wake up January 2nd. I do put up some decorations, fewer each year.

If you try to carry on with your life you just can’t avoid it. I tried to buy something at a store I frequent and anything practical had been replaced by some holiday tchotchke . Yuck.

With chilly and likely wet weather, there didn't seem to be a good way to manage any kind of inclusive dinner and stay within mandates this year. I'm cooking for two and will try to make it a nice day for DH. I have an 8# turkey. I've roasted chickens almost that size, it really looks a little silly. I'll make dressing and a pumpkin pie, rolls. With the turkey and the bread, the house should smell festive anyway ;0)

If its not raining and he's in the mood, I may suggest DH put the Christmas lights on the house that day. We don't go overboard with decorations but I do like the white icicle lights on the house, miss them when we take them down again. My mothers facility was offering one hour visits in a room with plastic divider Thanksgiving Day, I grabbed one of those for my brother. He's less than 15 minutes away from her, no freeway time involved for him. And he's her favorite so hopefully she will feel flattered, not ignored. DH and I have never in our adults lives not been with her on Thanksgiving or Christmas Day - this will be our first Thanksgiving for two.

I rec'd a note from mothers care coordinator yesterday where she was offering to decorate her apartment for Christmas. I have her decorations here, will take a few of the most important on Dec 1 with notes of what goes where. So relieved, I couldn't imagine how I was going to manage that this year when they won't allow me upstairs.

I'm rather pleased to get back to our quiet Thanksgiving tradition of snacking on our favorite freshly prepared foods from our local upscale grocer, wrapping presents, writing Christmas cards and decorating the house for Christmas. We have been attending a Friendsgiving the last few years and, while that was fun, I don't mind not attending this year.

As for Christmas, I'm really looking forward to staying home and enjoying our house at the holiday for the first time ever. We always travel to another state where our families are and spend two or three weeks shopping, wrapping, cooking and entertaining others. We do it as a labor of love for our parents, but I don't think either of us enjoys it. So, I'm excited to sleep in on Christmas morning and then enjoy a leisurely cup of cocoa in my pajamas. We might set up Facetime calls with our parents or maybe just make a regular telephone call to wish them a Merry Christmas.

"... we have ordered our Turkey dinner from a favorite restaurant. I don't feel like spending so much time cooking, though it is an easy meal. Plus, I think it's a good idea to support restaurants when at all possible these days."

The last time my husband and I ate in a restaurant was in February. We are trying to support local restaurants by ordering curbside pickup, and we, too, have ordered Thanksgiving dinner from a restaurant. It's actually a "Turkey Feast" which includes enough to feed six people so we will have plenty of leftovers! Turkey, mashed potatoes and gravy, stuffing, cranberry sauce, vegetables (green beans and carrots), yams, bread, butter, and a pie.

We are staying here at home for all of the holidays this year. Definitely not traveling, not having others come to share with us. I am still making a Thanksgiving meal. A small smoked turkey, sweet potato casserole, Cajun dirty rice /rice dressing. A strawberry cobbler, fresh green beans, steamed Cauliflower and a little bit of Cranberry salad. We will be able to have leftovers for a few meals.

I decided two days ago that I am going to cook a flank steak for Thanksgiving. I imagine Christmas Day will look much the same. I am thrilled.

My daughter usually has t-giving for us, her brother and wife and SIL's mother. My son/wife won't be coming and neither will elderly mother. If my daughter cancels, it will be fine with me since we have an overwhelming number of cases now. I got cut up butternut squash, Brussels sprouts, cauliflower so I will make my grilled veggies and if not for T-giving , some other night. I will not be buying a turkey for the two of us. I really don't like it that much. As for Xmas, since no one will be in my house because of covid, I will decorate very minimally and just put up some decorations outside. People like my 185 year old house decorated in the traditional way so I'll do that. For the first time since I was six, I will be buying zero gifts for anyone. We adults haven't for years and when the grandkids graduated from college and have jobs, that qualifies them as adults, and the last one to do this was grandson who graduated from William and Mary in the spring and has a full-time job. NO gifts for anyone.

Since our parents died in 2012 (mother in March and father in December), we've not celebrated holidays to any extent. We used to go to Texas every year for either T-day or Christmas, and I really hate traveling on holidays. LAX is crowded enough when it is not a holiday, but fortunately we live close to the airport, and so it is very easy for us to get there and back with no L.A. traffic.

I've had a tendency to get depressed during holidays, especially the days after Christmas - I guess there is an after holiday letdown that I always experienced.

Our tradition here is to go hiking in the desert, generally Anza Borrego, Death Valley, or Joshua Tree. Joshua Tree gets crowded at Thanksgiving, and so we'll probably go to Anza Borrego this year, which is a short drive from Palm Springs - about an hour and a half if we go by the Salton Sea, through Thermal and Mecca. I recently bought a good guide book for Anza Borrego, which should help me find hiking trails that I may not have yet been on.

I've never decorated for Christmas - those decorations take up too much space, and I get depressed when they come down. We'll probably have some sort of fish for T-day, and I might make tempura.

I can’t say I’ve always hated the holidays, but I hate having a December birthday and the holidays all at once. I stress and struggle to find time to shop, wrap, clean & cook. We skipped it all last year because my husband was not well, and I have to admit, it did feel liberating. This year I have other struggles and am guessing I should do the same thing again.

Skip the travel. Don't skip the holidays. I'm all for skipping whatever induces stress, or brings high risk, or commercialism, etc. But that is not the reason for the season. I'm hoping that I will have opportunities during the Thanksgiving/Christmas season to both stay safe yet help a family/senior/child in need. Maybe by a gift of cookies, maybe by just being an email penpal to an elderly person who like me has chosen to isolate. If you can be quietly alert to possibilities to help another, I believe such an opportunity will arise.

I wanna be just like Amylou when I grow up!

Rusty

Annette, I’m with you. The holidays have always been on me. Always stressful.

For the past 7 years DH and I vacationed in Costa Rica in January. It was the only way I could get through it knowing I had that to look forward to.

Last year we were invited to my DD’s boyfriend’s parents, for Thanksgiving.

Large crowd. I was so happy, I baked all the desserts!

This year it will be four of us. I would have preferred to do nothing but DH wants his sister, so there’s that.

For me you could have left out the it. In other words who else is just skipping this year. I am I am! (I wish!)

No to Christmas except for my household. Still I will be making Christmas dinner and bringing it to my sisters.

Hopefully everyone will remain okay mentally and emotionally. It is especially tough for people who are mentally disabled to understand what is going on. They only know that they are lonely because family is not with them and not lonely because family is with them.

Now that I think of it 2020 should be a skip it all year for all of us. Except for the lessons learned about how to look after our elders etc. And possibly all the good baking.

Amy lou - I am completely down with your approach! From the 20 ft. Santa to "if I dont wanna, I'm not gonna" ! If ever there was a year for this attitude, 2020 is the one. I think that when you make yourself happy and cheerful this feeling is transmitted to others. I do send out Christmas cards, and Hannukah and Happy New Year cards, to those who will enjoy them. I order a fruitcake for myself (no visitors this year) and jelly doughnuts for DH. There will be a wreath on our front door and a beautiful Hannukah menorah in our front window. If even a few people smile when they see them, it will have been worthwhile.

What I miss most about this season (aside from my mother) is the tradition of my parents taking me to see the annual performance by the Chicago Oratorio Chorale of Handel's Messiah, accompanied by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, in Orchestra Hall. The audience would rise and stand through their singing of the Hallelujah Chorus. A fantastic experience, chills up the spine!

Sable

We will have Thanksgiving here as usual, but far fewer will come. Everyone that is coming had Covid 2 months ago and are out of quarantine. I feel bad for those who do not have a joy for the Holiday's. I enjoy them, especially Thanksgiving. I do and will continue to decorate for Christmas but the last few years are much more relaxed. I used to do it up Big time. Down to 2 small trees now. I do most of my shopping on line now, which I like.

Like Lucille, we'll skip the travel, skip the public gatherings, but keep the holidays. More decorations outside for everyone to enjoy, and revive the traditional plates of cookies for neighbors.

Since the kids [3] are all grown now with their own families, I relish the holidays when they all come back.

Not this year.

Cue Harry Chapin's 'Cats in the cradle.'

I feel much more cheerful now that my plans for Thanksgiving are set. After lots of back and forth discussion and advice from a physician, my daughters and I will enjoy Thanksgiving with our own households. The physician cautioned that the only way to have a relatively safe Thanksgiving is if every member of the family quarantined from last Monday and was tested on Monday prior to Thanksgiving and continued to isolate until the holiday.

With the number of cases increasing and given that one grandson is coming home from college, another attends in person elementary school full time, and a granddaughter has been playing team soccer, my family and I decided that it is too stressful to get together for Thanksgiving. Too many moving parts. We would have been 14 people.

I ordered Thanksgiving dinner from Wegmans. It's for 4, so there will be leftovers. My husband and I may or may not make stuffed mushrooms which are a family Thanksgiving tradition and drop them off porch side at my two daughters' who live nearby. I cannot surprise them because one daughter may be planning the same, but a surprise would be fun.

The outlook is positive though that I will able to see them soon enough as the college student will finish the semester virtually, soccer girl is going to take a break, and it looks probable that the elementary school will go all virtual.

I am blessed and thankful that my daughters live close enough that our visits are much more frequent than holidays. Though it is the prudent decision, it is a tremendous sacrifice and heartache to forego seeing family during the upcoming holidays for those who live at a distance.

I also agree with those of you who expressed relief not to have the pressure of "doing the holiday". I am looking forward to a nice day with my husband.

I am hopeful that we can put this yuck behind us soon and grateful that we have made it this far.

I pray that everyone has a safe holiday!

Thanksgiving our son will bring over a dinner. Christmas we hang a circle of lights with a timer and wreath on the front porch, bring up our small lighted Christmas tree and we are finished. Doesn't take more than 10 minutes.

I have to work on Thanksgiving so that makes it easy. I did tell my family that I mentally and physically cannot do Christmas. I work in an ER and have had too many Covid patients to count. I’m exhausted and I’m having a procedure done on my leg in December so shopping is not going to happen. Maybe next year will be different.

We will Thanksgiving as usual! We have too too much to thank God for not to take a day and make it all about counting our blessings!! We are only 6 but we are a must to be together. Yesterday we beat today's rain and sleet and dawned Christmas outside the house. My favorite job is trimming the evergreens and creating a porch greeter!! It was soo fun to get the texts from my daughters as they decorated their own homes for Christmas as I worked. My inside will wait until after Thanksgiving. There is plenty of time since there are no competing events this year. No way no how will I let this pandemic get in the way of celebrating what's most important in life God, FAITH, family.

I love the holidays!

This year will be modified though. I’m looking at them as low key and meaningful.

While I love our traditional Thanksgiving meal, for our little bubble it’s too much. The chestnut dressing alone needs half a day to prepare.

I will bring my mom, a meal to reheat on Thanksgiving. Sad but I’m taking “have at-risk relatives join you for Thanksgiving, plan that funeral for right around Christmas or New Years Day” to heart. Worked too hard since March (NYC here) to keep us all safe here to throw it out the window now. We’ll have to be big boys and girls.

I’m making a ham and small leg of lamb. Mashed and roasted potatoes. Asparagus and carrots. We’ll have some cheese and pate on baguette with white wine beforehand. Red with the meal. We’ll have apple and pecan pies in the spirit of Thanksgiving.

It will be just my hubs, oldest with her husband and sweet new baby boy 🥰, (they’re in the bubble) younger daughter and son.

Dreading the “we aren’t coming” talk with husband’s side of family. MIL is a force to reckon with. 91 and can barely walk, but is a piece of work. We won’t be going for Feast of St Nicholas and Christmas Eve. Period. Case closed. Do I sound convincing enough? I hope my husband doesn’t weaken at the guilt trip that’s headed his way.

For Christmas? Looking forward to putting up my beautiful ornaments in the biggest tree we can afford and squeeze into this place. Nice and cozy, eating good food and listening to beautiful music.

My husband, the dog and I will be doing our regular celebration at home, just the three of us. We don't even really care for the regular turkey dinner, so we will enjoy a delicious tenderloin, baked potatoes and a salad. Our dog gets turkey meat every day, I cook ground turkey for a topper for her, she LOVES it. :)

I know that people want to get together, but it isn't safe. If you do get together, remember to not be hugging and kissing your relatives, as hard as that is. Maybe even try to wear your masks as much as possible, when you aren't eating.

I put aside the shopping season festivities a long time ago. I just quit buying any presents and told all that I want none. Of course, one exception is the wee young ones, the grandkids.

I quit with the tree and went with a nice super big wreathe.

Now I have quit with the wreathe.

Last year I was almost able to ignore it completely.

I think that there has been a change in our view of this dictating and dominating holiday. I see less and less of the frenzy around it, fewer home decorations, and I, thankfully, hear less of that gawd awful sappy music due to the fact that I spend less time in stores (in normal times).

Also, I don't get as subjected to the TV advertising since I watch most streaming. The exception is the news channel where they mostly advertise heart medicines and reverse mortgages.

I identified with the notion of feeling a sense of freedom from it. That is just exactly the way I felt---liberated. Joyfully liberated!

I am ready for a new perspective to take shape in our American world view. Those old traditions are ready to take a back seat to a new culture, hopefully.

I wont be around to see it, but I have hopes that it will change and evolve to meet the new world.

Time for a new perspective.

The old one is too small and narrow , and, is worn thin as can be. Good riddance!

I have alway liked both Thanksgiving and New Years much better than the Shopping Season.

Having said all of that, I just might put the big wreath up this year. Not for me, but for hubs who is having a. hard time coping with it all and he has alway liked the lights.

I stopped liking the lights when we went to LED tree lights. . They are such a cold unblinking light that I don't like them. They cast an eerie cold glow onto everything.

I have seen some holiday trees in the windows of some houses that are so flashy that they could be seizure inducing! You know, those high tech explosive light shows on the tree.

Made the difficult choice to be just DH, DS#2, and me, as we have been pretty much homebodies. Will drop off dinners at DS#1 and my brother, and hopefully we will do a zoom.

I always loved, loved, loved the holidays but when you get in your 80's, it's a lot of work. since no-one will be coming this year, I'm going to scale back a lot. DH said he's not even going to put the wreaths in the windows. Just a wreath on the front door. Fine by me. I will decorate my mantle but a lot simpler than usual. I'm looking forward to easy-peasy.

Skipping Thanksgiving for sure. I have a turkey breast in the freezer, but I'll save it for another time. I plan to snuggle in with a cat or two and watch the start of Season Two of "Virgin River."

I always work the holidays because I have nothing better to do. But since I'm furloughed again I'm home. I don't mind. Got pot of spagetti made so I'm set

Just me, my cat and 2 puppets lol.

I am celebrating by going on an extra long trail ride tomorrow. We will be surrounded by the wonders of nature and it's creatures. Plenty to be thankful for. No better place to reflect and appreciate life.

For Christmas we will put a large wreath on our house as always. I have a smaller tree to put up for this year. I'm doing it in a very simple red and white theme. Normally we put up an 8.5 footer laden with ornaments.

For Thanksgiving, we are not traveling. My kids are grown and out of the house. My youngest son has set up Zoom meeting for all of us. MY wife and I ordered a take-out family meal from Denny's. (We'll have left overs for sandwiches later.)