COVID-friendly Canada Day
Easy, inexpensive ways to mark the country’s birthday
Canada Day is a fantastic day for communities to gather together for barbecues, entertainment and fireworks.
As with many other celebrations, due to current COVID-19 restrictions, festivities are going to look a little different this year. To avoid large gatherings, many towns have cancelled their annual July 1 events, but there is still plenty of fun to be had.
Here are some easy and inexpensive ways to celebrate Canada Day 2020:
1. SHOW MAPLE LEAF
PRIDE — Setting the stage with simple holiday décor is always a great place to start. The dollar store has many cheap options, but a little DIY-décor is wonderful too. Inexpensive wreaths can be created using wreath forms, a glue gun, red and white felt flags hung from twine, and a dollar store mini hockey stick. It’s always nice to have a cute holiday wreath to hang on the front door of your home.
A book page bunting is also easy to create, and it’s a perfect project for kids. Paper “maple leaves” can be coloured, cut out and glued to “flags” cut from pages from an old book. Then, the pages can be strung from twine and hung for everyone to enjoy. 2. CANADIAN CUISINE — Festive food is also a “must have” for any holiday celebration. Barbecues are synonymous with Canada Day, but adding some fun “red and white” items is a simple way to up the fun factor. Lay down a red and white picnic tablecloth and fill the table with red and white food options. Consider individual red and white cheesecakes (served in jam jars), red and white candies, ketchup chips, KitKat bars, homemade strawberries dipped in white chocolate and kabobs made from strawberries and powdered donuts.
Alternatively, using a maple leaf cookie cutter, you can easily create a large variety of Canada Day-themed foods. Maple leaf-shaped sandwiches made from white bread and strawberry jam look terrific on a tray, and what could be more Canadian than a pancake shaped like a maple leaf covered in maple syrup?
Homemade ice cream sandwiches are another great Canada Day food option. You can even set up an ice cream sandwich bar with a variety of homemade cookie and ice cream flavour options. Ginger cookies filled with chocolate ice cream are my favourite, but chocolate cookies filled with vanilla ice cream are very popular with my boys.
3. FUN SNAPS — A photo booth is another entertaining idea that works well with small groups. You can get a bunch of photo props from the dollar store and make signs with unique Canadian expressions, like, “I love Canada!” “Canada is A-MOOSEing!” and “Every night is hockey night!”
Other ways to celebrate at home (or in small groups) are by having a campfire, playing with sparklers, watching a Canadian movie, and making a Canada Day craft — try making a flag from a cardstock and a straw, a beaver puppet from a paper lunch bag, or a fireworks picture using paint and a cut up toilet paper roll.
Even without official community events, there are many ways to celebrate July 1. Stay safe, use some imagination and have a Happy Canada Day.