Tips for Hosting a Safe Holiday Gathering

Break out the decorative tablecloths, family recipe books, and those fancy plates you have tucked in the back of your cabinets because it’s holiday season! The leaves are just starting to change, the air is getting a little cooler, and people around the globe are preparing their homes for festive gatherings of family and friends. Though as the world witnessed last year, the art of hosting for the holidays looks a little different than it once did – that is, pre-pandemic.  

While organizations like the CDC and WHO have recommended guidelines to follow for safe gatherings, it can still feel overwhelming to consider the right safety measures for a holiday dinner when you are already worried about the typical catastrophes of a festive feast, like what flavor pie to make or how many casseroles you can fit in the oven at once.  

Practicing a few mindful actions while preparing and hosting a holiday gathering can reduce the risks associated with illness exposure and transmission among guests, which can help promote a safer holiday season this year. These measures are simple, and most likely things you have already adapted to within the past year and a half. Follow along for tips and tricks on hosting for the holidays in 2021.  

Social Gatherings During the Holidays

As the holidays roll in, so do more indoor gatherings, increased travel, and cold and flu season. These all can contribute to a surge in illness cases, as often seen around the holiday times and especially last year during the COVID-19 pandemic. With this in mind, creating a few “social gathering rules” for you and your guests to abide by is a great first step in holiday planning. A strong suggestion for holiday gatherings is to keep the guest list at a household level; however, this is hard to enforce for many families that haven’t seen distanced relatives in a year or more. 

In these cases, consider the following guidelines to share with your guest list: 

The last thing you want is to invite germs into your home so they can spread to everyone at the gathering. Remind your guests to let you know if they are feeling ill before the event and have them stay at home to avoid further exposure.  

Arranging tables on a household basis is an easy way to practice social distancing and prevent exposure between immediate families, especially among out-of-town relatives who just got done traveling. 

If you are particularly worried about the spread of COVID-19 during the holidays, you may want to request that your unvaccinated guests get a COVID test before arriving at your gathering so that you can be sure no one is spreading the virus across the dinner table. 

Don’t be afraid to set some boundaries with your friends and family during this holiday season. A recent survey revealed that 52% of respondents that have been vaccinated said they would feel uncomfortable attending a holiday gathering knowing that there would be unvaccinated guests there. Further, 54% of all respondents declared that vaccination status would be a deciding factor for travel and holiday plans. Navigating current reality is still a bit fresh for everyone, so it is okay to learn how to say no to family gatherings if you or another guest doesn’t feel comfortable with the conditions of the dinner. That’s what video chatting is for! 

Prepare Your Home for Hosting

Make your home holiday-ready by taking a few precautionary steps for a safe gathering space. Air quality has become a vital component of safe indoor environments, especially considering airborne transmission of seasonal illnesses and COVID-19. To improve your air quality, try to create as much ventilation as possible to maintain a fresh supply of air. If applicable, open windows and doors or install window fans to increase ventilation. If it is too cold to keep the windows open, there are easy alternatives to protect the space you are hosting in. 

 

• • Keep your air conditioner running with the fan on. By not utilizing the automatic function on your HVAC system, you can maintain a constant air flow while guests are gathered indoors. 
  • Invest in additional filtration to work alongside your HVAC system; this could include an air purifier, which if portable, can be moved from room to room to best address the busiest part of your home.  

Air purifiers are becoming a household essential for many families that have given greater thought to safer indoor air quality. It’s an investment not just for the health-conscious individual, but also allergy sufferers and pet owners who deal with airborne triggers and odors. The EnviroKlenz Air Systems offer advanced air purification for your home, utilizing safe earth-mineral technology to capture and destroy airborne viruses, particulates, and odors from indoor spaces. They are quiet, compact, and mobile, making these air purifiers convenient for when you are hosting events and need to bring added air filtration to a busy room. The EnviroKlenz Air Systems act as a protective barrier against holiday germs and colds that travel in with your guests, working against these pathogens at a 99.9% effective rate.  

Tips & Tricks for the Holiday Hostess

Practice a few added measures as you event plan to accommodate for traditional, higher-risk holiday customs. As an obvious measure, wash your hands frequently when prepping and serving food or handling any glasses, dishes, and silverware. Get creative with single-serve snacks and appetizers for guests to grab and eat, which minimizes contact of food and hovering groups of people. And consider pouring all the drinks so that there are less hands touching bottles and glasses.  

If you wish to see more faces around the holidays, why not host a virtual gathering! This low-risk option creates a compromise for guests who can’t make it to your event in person, and it’s a safe alternative to an overpacked dinner table! 

Traveling During the Holidays

Whether you are traveling to another location or anticipating guests who are traveling to you, taking a holiday trip has its risks around this time of year with everyone preparing to visit family and friends. It might be smart to limit your travel as much as possible this season to avoid the potential exposure to another illness surge. It’s a common question among many people to ask, “can traveling to visit family and friends increase my chances of getting and spreading COVID-19?” The condensed atmosphere of an airport can transmit a lot of germs among different crowds of people, creating a greater chance of getting and spreading any illness. Road trips could be a safer option in this case, however either mode of travel should come with mindful practices of frequent sanitation, social distancing, and overall safety. 

Holidays are meant to be enjoyed, and this is year is no exception! As a host, you shouldn’t stress over rearranging your entire dinner plans; with a few proactive adjustments, your home can be a safe sanctuary to gather in. Minimizing contact between people and any food laid out, and added filtration for cleaner air spaces, can do wonders for protecting the family and friends you’ve been waiting all year to see. These practices will also help you stay safe and healthy after the holidays and into the new year, which is a long-lasting gift anyone would ask for! 

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