Christmas won’t be dear old self
City traditions are taking a hit from COVID-19
COVID-19 is the Grinch that stole Christmas.
No holiday plays or parties. No crowds cruising acres of commerce.
Things just ain’t normal this holiday season, the city admits.
“The big events, the annual shows, the exhibits and activities — very little will be business as usual this time around,” New York’s official guide-to-everything concedes.
It’s wait-till-new-year for Christmas favorites like the Radio City Rockettes’ “Christmas Spectacular,” Winter’s Eve at Lincoln Square, the New York Road Runners Midnight Run, the holiday markets at Union Square and Columbus Circle, and Kwanzaa performances at the Apollo.
And for the first time since 1861, there will be no sitting on Santa’s lap at Macy’s. Instead, a virtual Santaland will be a destination for kids who won’t get to whisper in Santa’s ear what they want for Christmas.
And the festive activities we can do are tweaked for the times.
The holiday market at Bryant Park is a go, but the number of kiosks have been reduced and rearranged around the park to keep things socially distant, with fewer shops and more walking space. All the shops will limit capacity.
And go ahead, grab your skates and head to ice rinks at Bryant Park, Brookfield Place, Rockefeller Center and Prospect Park in Brooklyn.
But there will be protocols in place at all the sites: masks for one thing, limited capacity for another.
For lovers of the annual production of “A Christmas Carol” at the Merchant’s House Museum, there’s a limited virtual engagement from Dec. 18 to Dec. 24.
Even the holiday caroling and religious services at the city’s cathedrals won’t be the same this year.
The Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine at 112th St. and Amsterdam Ave. will still have its performance of holiday carols and spirituals — but it’ll be on the front steps of the cathedral on Dec. 13. And St. Patrick’s Cathedral on Fifth Ave. will celebrate its elaborate and moving Midnight Mass service and music virtually.
And the Christmas window unveiling that draws huge crowds were different, too.
Bloomingdale’s, Saks Fifth Avenue and Macy’s all had virtual reveals to avoid big crowds gathering.
The unsettling changes in the ways Christmas is being celebrated test the way we usually ease anxiety — with rituals, says Dimitris Xygalatas, an associate professor of anthropology and psychology at the University of Connecticut, where he’s director of the experimental anthropology lab.
“It’s a unique predicament,” Xygalatas said. “What do we do about it? Well, we’ve already seen people get very creative during the pandemic ... drive-through birthdays, virtual weddings and funerals.”
“And with every single one of them it’s not the same thing, but it helps,” he said.
“A lot of [people] are taking big risks to celebrate” the holidays, Xygalatas said, noting the surprising numbers of people who defied advice from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to stay home for Thanksgiving. “If you do want to be careful, you can still get this sense of continuity.”
Holiday-hungry celebrants can “focus on the element that make those ceremonies so important … symbols, dressing.”
“The other way rituals [are used to comfort] is through aligning our behaviors — singing, dancing, raising our glasses in a toast.” And it can all be done virtually.
“We’ll bounce right back” and crowd together once again, Xygalatas said. “It’s human nature.” But in other ways, we’ll change. “The majority of those new rituals are going to go away,” he said.
“But some will be adopted and become a permanent part of your holiday,” he said. You may not Zoom for a family celebration on Christmas 2021, “but maybe you’ll have a virtual meeting with your extended family