In order to keep ourselves and our communities safe and healthy this holiday season, we’ve been asking our Masonic Homes and Acacia Creek teams for suggestions of ways to celebrate while remaining social distant to stop the spread of COVID-19.

Each Tuesday, we’ll share a new idea from a member of our team. This tip comes from Shelly Jioia, a Masonic Outreach Services care manager, who’s adapting a family holiday ritual for an online audience:

A Virtual Holiday Play

Some of my fondest memories are of when I was a child and we went to Grandma’s house for the holidays. Now because of COVID, we’re not going for Thanksgiving dinner, but we can still carry on traditions that we participated in previously. My idea comes from when our family got together for the holidays. All of the kids would all get together and put on a play for the adults. We wrote the stories (which had a lot of improvisation because no one memorized all of their lines). Then after a few quick practices outside, we got the rest of the family in their chairs for our audience. We put on our plays every holiday and usually ended up with tons of laughter and joy. This would be on a much smaller scale now, but I think it could still work. Even small families could come up with short skits with just two people or even a one-man show. Some families may not have enough to do both the skits and the audience. In those cases, they can record their skits (which is awesome because then they can edit out the mistakes—or not) and send to their loved ones wherever they may be. I hope everyone’s holiday is happy and joyous as we are alive and well. Happy holidays!

Many thanks to Shelly for the suggestion!

Other Resources for Staying Healthy

State and local governments are issuing rules for gatherings, and we should abide by them.  For official guidance about staying healthy this holiday season, please visit these sites to stay up-to-date:

• State of California Holidays and COVID-19
• Alameda County COVID-19 Main Website
• Los Angeles County COVID-19 Main Website
• Center for Disease Control Holiday Guidelines

For the latest news about the Masonic Homes and COVID-19, including employee policies, visit the Masonic Homes website.