December 22nd, 2020

The holidays certainly feel different this year. Depending on where you live, you may be doing all of your holiday shopping online, celebrating solo, or planning a much smaller gathering than usual. After the difficult and isolative year we’ve all had, it’s especially disappointing that we can’t celebrate the holidays as we normally would. But, as we all know, making health a top priority sometimes requires difficult sacrifices.

So we’re determined to make the best of it, and that means embracing technology to connect with family and friends. Here are some tips and fun ways to feel connected with family even when you’re far apart.

Choose a single ingredient or traditional holiday recipe and challenge each family or household to come up with a creative and delicious holiday dish (or an innovative take on an old favorite).

1. Come up with some basic rules, including how much time each team will have to develop the dish, number of servings, and any off-limits ingredients.
2. Send everyone an email with the rules, the featured ingredient or traditional holiday recipe, and a form with the judging criteria and point system for each household to print (one per participant).
3. Designate a single host and have household select:

   -A master chef

   -Sous chefs

   -A cameraperson (to hold the device and provide behind-the-scenes kitchen commentary)

4. Prior to the challenge, each household preps a recipe, buys ingredients, and keeps their dish (or take on a traditional dish) a secret from the other households.
5. On the night of the cooking challenge, the host will coordinate with the camera people to make sure each kitchen is featured.
6. When time is up, all members of each household will taste that household’s dish and assign points.
7. The winning dish will be featured at next year’s holiday gathering.

If you want to keep screens off the dinner table during your holiday meal, then a virtual pre-dinner mocktail hour is a great way to connect before you sign off to eat. Toasting with the same drink will help it feel more like a shared experience.

1. Have each household submit a holiday mocktail recipe a week or two before your virtual holiday gathering.
2. Have everyone vote on the best recipe and instruct each household to buy the ingredients for the winning recipe.
3. On the night of the virtual gathering, each household will make the same mocktail and enjoy a drink (or two!) together before the holiday meal.

Even though many of us can’t wait until 2020 is a distant memory, it has certainly been a year unlike any other. Capture this strange and challenging year with a virtual family portrait. It can be a standard photo with everyone dressing up for the occasion, a silly one with props and ugly holiday sweaters, or a chance to reflect with everyone holding up a word that sums up the year for them.

Many years from now, we may be able to look back and understand that this year, while extremely difficult, has taught us something about ourselves.

Written by Reigna