Thanksgiving 2020 celebrations call for creativity and innovation. Without these two qualities, it might be tricky making this holiday a fantastic and memorable occasion. With COVID-19, we are all forced to adopt new strategies to continue enjoying our long-held traditions.

COVID-19 has refused to go away, at least for now. That’s why this fall might feel like a roller coaster of endless stop-and-start restrictions. This is why having safety tips for this upcoming Thanksgiving Day is a big plus.

Thanksgiving Safety Tips

You can do many things to ensure you and your loved ones stay safe during Thanksgiving Day and beyond. Consider some of the following activities and tips that you can use to outsmart this virus as you celebrate this all-important day.

• Hosting a “Zoom Thanksgiving”

This year is high time you reconsider some of the traditional approaches to celebrating this day. Instead of the usual in-person celebrations, you can now take advantage of technology and have a Thanksgiving Day via Zoom or other video conferencing tools.

You might be wondering how such a celebration looks like. Well, by using video chats and online services to do things remotely with people in different locations. So, you don’t have to be present at the site to participate in an activity with other people – you can still do the activity together online.

For instance, you can set a time to eat a meal with family or friends or remote cooking lessons, or better still, swap family recipes.

Suppose you want your Zoom Thanksgiving celebrations to be a success. In that case, you’ll have to designate a host who’ll be responsible for the exercise.

•  Host an Outside Dinner

The Center for Disease Control and Prevention recommends outdoor activities this festive season. The reason is simple —outdoors, fresh air is abundant, and a lot of room for social distancing.

To have an excellent outside dinner this Thanksgiving Day, you need to plan. Have all the necessary furniture and utensils ready. Have the weather in mind and prepare for any possible weather changes.

Of course, don’t forget to decorate the environment appropriately, remembering that this is an outdoor event.

Since you’ll serve your meals outside, it’s essential to have a plan to keep your delicacies warm. You don’t want people at the far end of the table or buffet line to scoop up lukewarm mashed potatoes during fall.

Other Safety Tips for Thanksgiving During COVID 19

Other than the approach you decide to use to hold Thanksgiving dinner, there are other safety aspects you need to consider, as highlighted below.

•  Shop online

Going to the stores has been part and parcel of Thanksgiving night or the day after, but things should be different this year. Instead of taking chances and exposing yourself to the potential risk of contracting this virus, it will be better to do your shopping online from the comfort of your home.

• Host small gatherings with people in your community

The CDC recommends you hold gatherings only with people from your immediate community. People from further afield, especially from areas with a high incidence of this virus, should not be encouraged to come over for the celebrations.

• Limit the duration of the gathering

The CDC further recommends that you don’t have extended gatherings. This poses a higher risk of transmission of this virus. Please stick to the core purpose of the meeting and keep it brief but fun. Don’t spend too much time maskless over dinner, for example.

• Wear face masks

Unless when circumstances don’t allow, you and everyone else in the gathering should always have your face masks on. The covers should be adequately worn, not suspended on your chins.

• Maintain high levels of hygiene and cleanliness

The fight against COVID-19 is won largely by keeping high standards of hygiene. When your home is clean and disinfected regularly, you lower the chances of this virus surviving on the surfaces in your abode.

Get the services of a professional cleaning company like Illinois Valley Clean Team to clean and disinfect your home this Thanksgiving and beyond.Visit our site for a free quote and give your home a thorough and professional cleaning this festive season.

Halloween celebrations are marked by werewolves, witches, tombstones, and giant spider webs in the back and front yards.

However, as Covid-19 continues to decimate special events, it is clear that 2020’s Halloween in Illinois won’t be spooky business as usual.

Expect fewer haunted houses, no macabre parties, and far less trick-or-treating. 

So what are you to do? Can you make Halloween events in Illinois extra hair-raising amidst the pandemic? 

Well, experts have answers for you. 

Experts’ Guidelines for Celebrating Halloween in Illinois

Nothing stops you from donning a costume, viewing horror films at home or in a drive-in theater, or carving a jack o’ lantern. 

What matters is how you do it. 

According to Dr. Mark Loafman, chair of family and community medicine at Cook County Health: “It’s small groups keeping distance, it’s wearing masks and these things can absolutely happen and getting outdoors is, you know, safe and able to do when it’s done in those constructs.” 

He says, “We want to avoid people getting into a situation where they don’t have control of their surroundings and people that maybe are lax about their mask use and their hygiene are going to contaminate others. I think the best way to take care of our families is to not get ourselves in those situations where we lose control, and it becomes a spreading event.”

Loafman adds, “Watch your distance, wash your hands and then wearing masks, those are the big three things for any kind of public activity, and you know whatever is done needs to be done in that way when those three things can be maintained.”

“And when we do that, we have very good luck controlling the spread of this virus and when we don’t do those things we get spread and when it’s a congregate event where there’s a lot of people coming we get super spread. And that’s what’s really, really killing us right now is the fact that we don’t just have low-level one-to-one transmission but we get events where one person infects five and they infect 20 and then you get 100 before you know it. That’s what we have to stop if we ever want to get through this.”

According to him, maintaining hygiene and engaging small groups can help families celebrate the day safely. 

He says, “What we recommend is you know families get together, so it’s safe houses where we know who’s going to be going where and we know people are following the protocols and is celebrating, dressing up and the other occasions that would be useful, and good family traditions and that sort of thing,” 

It’s also wise to partake healthy snacks as you uphold health principles, especially now that we are majorly relying on our immune system to fight the pandemic.

According to Loafman: “We try to focus on healthy snacks, try to focus on teaching children safe ways to communicate and how to enforce public health principles. I think we anticipate living with this virus for quite a while and maybe indefinitely and we really have to learn how to retrain all occasions and all events to be able to do it in a safe way so this is an opportunity to do that.”

When dishing candy, Loafman advises, “It would be good to know that the people that are preparing the candy are doing it in a way that’s hygiene-related and then safe for the kids so I think having a container out that we feel confident was prepared appropriately and then letting kids pick it up, but again, the issue then is that they’re all putting their hands in this bowl.” He adds, “So, you know, individual would be safer, individual handouts in some way so that there wasn’t a common bowl everybody’s reaching into- I think that’s probably a risky scenario.”

His insights are seconded by Dr. Arwady, a health expert based in Chicago, as she urges people to educate their kids on all matters Halloween celebrations amid Covid-19. 

She said there would be more specific guidelines coming up closer to Halloween.

The said guidelines will mainly depend on Covid-19 prevalence per community and incorporate the CDC’s new policies.

The CDC did, however, recommend safe ways to celebrate the holiday. Among them a Halloween scavenger hunt, virtual costume parades, and parties. 

Have you checked Halloween festivals near me? This isn’t just a day posted on the calendar, it’s a bona fide routine!

Also, remember to keep your home clean and disinfected, with or without any small parties or Halloween events. COVID-19 is still out there and it’s going to come back for another wave before it goes away forever. So, contact the Illinois Valley Clean Team to give you peace of mind and a fresh fall home.