YES or No: Are you having holiday gatherings as usual (no changes due to coronavirus)?

50 people? Damn dude. That’s normal?

We’re doing 8 or so, myself, wife, our daughter, and her parents and brother. A little smaller than normal, but normal would only be 10-14ish.

Technically we are doing “interstate travel,” but it’s just within New England.

No, but not because of COVID. We are leaving town to visit my brother in law with the kids and my wife’s parents. 8 total. Wife and I are staying at a beach hotel while the other 6 stay at my Bro’s apartment. We will eat Thanksgiving dinner with them and hang out during the day.

Driving within the state.

No

Hell no. Not turning down a valid reason to avoid grating relatives.

Yes. The First Amendment guarantees freedom of assembly and association. It explicitly forbids the government from interfering with your right to associate with whomever you want.

No. We've had a big-ish holiday party every year for 25-30 years. Not this year.

One of our daughters lives in Brooklyn. We'll have T-day (and maybe Xmas, but maybe not) with her and her fiancee, but that's it.

survey says wrote:

Yes.

Multi-generational gatherings, coastal travelers and more than 50 people.

What is a coastal traveler? I've heard of bi-coastal or transcontinental travel.

If your elderly loved ones tell you to stay away 1000% stay away and don’t feel guilty. But if your elderly loved ones want to see you and you refuse because “you’re doing what’s best for them”, shame on you. I don’t understand how you all can say you couldn’t stand the guilt if they caught Covid from you but don’t think twice about guilt of their loneliness over the last year. And don’t give me the “at least they won’t die!” crap. They could very well die from a number of things and have spent the last 8+ months completely alone because their hero family members “knew better than they did”.

Yes, normal holidays.

When I look at the data, I just don't understand the fear. The oldest people in my family have like a 3.6% chance of death if they get infected. They are healthy, and would rather see their grandchildren than stay at home by themselves because of a 3.6% chance of dying... if they even get infected.

No

This is all a nice excuse not have to deal with all of the hassle to get together out of obligation.

survey says wrote:

Yes.

Multi-generational gatherings, coastal travelers and more than 50 people.

No.

newserton wrote:

Yes, normal holidays.

When I look at the data, I just don't understand the fear. The oldest people in my family have like a 3.6% chance of death if they get infected. They are healthy, and would rather see their grandchildren than stay at home by themselves because of a 3.6% chance of dying... if they even get infected.

And if that leads to 20 of them getting infected there is a greater than 50% of at least one them dying.

Star wrote:

And if that leads to 20 of them getting infected there is a greater than 50% of at least one them dying.

You grossly overestimate the number of older people in my family.

But one way or another, an infection introduced in your large get together could lead to infecting 20 older or at risk people that otherwise may not get infected.

Some from that group and some that go on to infect others later elsewhere.

I know this sounds callous, but not our problem.

No one who will attend our family Thanksgiving and Christmas regularly interacts with anyone at a higher risk than 3.6%.

Statistically, if anyone dies from my family gathering, we will be at least one degree of separation from that person, and that would be the fault of the person in between for spreading it to someone at risk.

No. My wife is 31 weeks pregnant. She is due mid-January when things will be really bad. Don't need more stress or risk.

No. We'll be 5 for Thanksgiving instead of the usual 20+. No for Christmas as well. I really wanted to see my mom, but flying doesn't look like a good option, and the country where she lives has reinstated many restrictions.

pavement88 wrote:

No. My wife is 31 weeks pregnant. She is due mid-January when things will be really bad. Don't need more stress or risk.

Congrats! I hope your wife is feeling well. It must be strange (and stressful) to be pregnant during these pandemic times.

If you contract the virus from your gathering and give it to a coworker who gives it to their father who dies - not your problem.

Yeah, that does sound callous.

And it’s not just you.

It’s every person from your gathering that may bring it to someone outside your gathering.

It’s a pure numbers game.

The larger the gatherings and the more gatherings there are, the more people that will die unnecessarily.

It’s a simple projection that the holiday gatherings will kill many people this year.

A lot more than the usual drink drivers.

No. I thought we'd be safe with a 5-month-delayed funeral for my father in September, but even with taking precautions, my husband and I ended up with Covid. Luckily it didn't hit us that hard, but I would have never forgiven myself if my mom or grandpa got it. It sucks not being with friends and family for the holidays, especially since my dad died this year and my grandma, who would always host, died in 2018. I'm just hoping that the rest of my family sticks around long enough for this to be over and then we can have big gatherings again.