Christmas Plans 2020?

[Anne Gracie]

Travelling on a plane, and seeing family - first time in a year for both. Need to apply to travel in my own country - that is a first. Let us hope that the current pandemic status of things in Australia does not change between now and then. Having two weeks off in total and spending some more of it at home as well.

[Dinah Cunningham]

For Hannah: Why don't you try to avoid the times where there more people than normal? First train in the morning, stop somewhere when there are too many people around et continue so that you arrive with the last train possible? I try to travel like that here in Switzerland. Can you see how many people are normally on any train in Germany? If so, you could take a look and plan accordingly.

I always go see my parents for Xmas, so I will be doing this, and I will stay 19 days. So I won't be finished with Quarantine at Xmas but will have time later (after the 10 days).

[Hannah]

I'll try to avoid people, of course. It might depend on rules at work how much that will be possible - if we have still distance learning in December and January I could go on days that won't be as bad. If I have to teach classes in person that won't be possible. I'll also go in the 1st class. But if you're sitting in a train for so many hours aerosols will be a problem even if I there aren't too many people. Lübeck - Radolfzell is really a long distance .

And of course there are also those people who don't wear their masks even though they are mandatory .

[Chrissie777]

What are your best hoped for plans this year - or have you decided to write off Xmas 2020?
As usual, my wife will be working looking after those in her care home for a 13hr shift.
I usually do a couple of runs taking people in who work with her who have no transport.
As our kids have flown the coup we always offer to do this so the Mums with kids can have Christmas day together.
Then a few days later we have our dinner with all the trimmings etc.
What about you this year - any plans - lockdown notwithstanding!

Pete, this year we'll not have much of a Christmas as André's daughter won't fly home to Massachusetts (she lives and works in New Orleans).
André's son & family have been working from home since February and even get their groceries delivered to their house and avoid all contact since February. They are bio chemists and predicted the virus early on.
So I doubt we'll meet at their house on 25th of December as usual.

We cannot have a Christmas tree since December 2014, because our white German shepherd dog would make it fall down.
And when I wrote to our church to inquire about the candle light service on 24th of December several weeks ago, I never received an answer.
Fortunately my husband has close to 2 weeks off until 2nd of January.
As usual we plan to go 6 or 7 times to the movies like we do every year between the holidays (it has become a tradition since 2007).
Plus social distancing at the movie theaters works real well (we went twice to the movies in October and were pleasantly surprised)!

Well, there will be Christmas 2021...

[Chrissie777]

I will definitely have a video call with my family on Christmas Day or Boxing Day, and Mum has informed me my parcel of Christmas goodies is already in the post. And she assures me it includes my favourite Mint Slice biscuits from Australia (dark chocolate with mint), without which it just wouldn't be Christmas.

Courtenay, I feel the same about marzipan which is unknown in the US, but very popular in Germany at this time of the year. Fortunately my best friend from Luebeck sent me a few ALDI Baumstaemme (that's marzipan covered with milk chocolate) and I will keep them for the holidays.

We'll do amazon portal to see and talk to all our relatives at Christmas.
Skype no longer works on either of our computers since 2018.

[Chrissie777]

I'll do what I do every year...wait for the first of the three Xmas Ghosts to arrive! Humbug!

[Chrissie777]

With our son, wife and their new baby daughter living in the north, plans were in place for a Yorkshire family Christmas. As there are eleven of us in the extended family, we hired a cottage next door to our son's house. It is extremely doubtful that this will now take place, so we are in the lap of the gods. We can cancel the cottage up to the 18th of December, so it's a case of fingers crossed!

Hope all will work out for you, Nigel!

[Chrissie777]

If I can't go that would mean very lonely two weeks for me . Not sure if in that case I'd try to make a nice time for myself or if I'd rather try to completely ignore Christmas.

Hannah, there are always EB books to read and great movies to watch.

[Chrissie777]

We have decided, though, that this year we will splash out a bit more than usual. We may get our family Christmas but if not at least we will have enjoyed fancy advent calendars etc. Not expensive but we have also decided to do Elf on the Shelf for Brodie through December.

Over here it's very hard to find advent calendars in super markets. However, when I stood in line at ALDI's last week and saw lots of women grab huge advent calendars, I took the last one without checking it.
At home I found out that it's not the kind filled with chocolate, but filled with stickers and other stuff for kids.
I buy advent calendars for my husband in case I find one, but guess this year he will be surprised...

[Chrissie777]

I'll also go in the 1st class. But if you're sitting in a train for so many hours aerosols will be a problem even if I there aren't too many people. Lübeck - Radolfzell is really a long distance .
And of course there are also those people who don't wear their masks even though they are mandatory .

When we took the ferry from Nantucket back to Hyannis at the end of September, we were sitting at a table for 6 people, because all seat rows by the windows were already taken.
A group of 4 people asked if they could sit with us. I asked them politely to sit somewhere else, because of social distancing and us being over 60 and in the risk group. Fortunately they were the only ones asking us and found another empty table for six.

[Courtenay]

Plus social distancing at the movie theaters works real well (we went twice to the movies in October and were pleasantly surprised)!

Well, if it means you don't get anyone's head blocking your view... (Being 5 ft 1 in tall — or 155 cm where I come from — I find this extremely annoying.)

[Chrissie777]

Courtenay, we only go at 1 p.m. or the latest at 4 p.m. to the movies. I would fall asleep at any later shows.
The social distancing at the Blackstone Cinema was done in a way that people were sitting in every other seat row. In-between were empty seat rows.
Also they didn't sit in the middle, many did sit towards the lft or the right.
So there were actually much more than 6 or 7 feet distance between movie goers.

[Hannah]

If I can't go that would mean very lonely two weeks for me . Not sure if in that case I'd try to make a nice time for myself or if I'd rather try to completely ignore Christmas.

Hannah, there are always EB books to read and great movies to watch.

I'm sure I won't die of boredom . Still being all on my own is not what I want for Christmas. It would probably be easier if I had a partner or at least some friends in town. But the few that I have will be with their families out of town for Christmas.
We'll see if I dare to go home. I'm really hoping that maybe we'll keep the distance learning so I could go earlier during the week.

I agree with you about marzipan - being in Lübeck really has an advantage . I love the marzipan from the "Marzipanspeicher". "Königsberger Marzipan" is my favourite (difficult to describe what it is, it get's kind of grilled in the end - their is a short article on wikipedia though I've never seen it with jam in it).

[Chrissie777]

I agree with you about marzipan - being in Lübeck really has an advantage . I love the marzipan from the "Marzipanspeicher". "Königsberger Marzipan" is my favourite (difficult to describe what it is, it get's kind of grilled in the end - their is a short article on wikipedia though I've never seen it with jam in it).

Hannah, I used to live in Hamburg between 1987 and 2002, before immigrating to the US.
Luebeck (HL) was my favorite town in Germany. So old and so very beautiful.
Once a year in December I rented a car and drove to HL, walked over the Weihnachtsmarkt (Christmas market), Heilig Geist Hospital advent exhibition (I'm not sure it still exists?) and before driving back home I had marzipan cake with marzipan hot chocolate at Café Niederegger.

I've never heard of Koenigsberger marzipan, just am familiar with Niederegger and Odense.
But my favorite is actually the Baumstamm at ALDI, because it's covered with milk chocolate instead of dark chocolate.

[Hannah]

Niederegger has some Königsberger marzipan too

Yes, the Christmas market at the Heilig Geist Hospital still exists. Not this year, of course, because of Covid-19, but hopefully we'll have our Christmas markets again next year. I'll miss all the nice food this year.
I've been living in Lübeck since 2012 but I've often been to Hamburg before because my mother has lived there until she was 16 so she has friends and relatives living in Hamburg.