Readers Share Thanksgiving Plans: Virginia Survey Results

VIRGINIA — With coronavirus cases increasing in the U.S. public health officials are urging residents to celebrate at home or take precautions. Families are faced with a decision on whether to celebrate or skip celebrations involving family and friends who they don't live with.

With a week to go until Thanksgiving, we asked Virginia Patch readers what they're planning amid the COVID-19 pandemic. More than 600 responses came in between Wednesday morning and early Friday afternoon. The survey is a non-scientific poll intended to show reader sentiment.

Among the respondents, 57 percent said they're only celebrating Thanksgiving with their households. Another 31.9 percent plan to celebrate with family or friends who are outside their households, and 5.3 percent plan to celebrate virtually. The remainder said "other," with responses ranging from people celebrating both with their households and virtually to those celebrating alone.

A total of 76.8 percent do not plan to travel, while 15.6 percent will travel locally and 7.6 percent will travel out of state.

Although the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention isn't recommending Thanksgiving celebrations with other households, it offers suggestions like hosting outdoor gatherings or opening windows when hosting guests. In our survey, 59.7 percent do not plan to host gatherings outdoors or with windows open. That could be explained by the fact that 57 percent are only planning to stay with their own households. A total of 25.6 percent plan to open windows if the weather allows, and 14.7 plan to have Thanksgiving outdoors if the weather allows.

The statewide face mask mandate for indoors public places does not apply inside personal residences, but the CDC recommends wearing a mask around people who don't live with you for Thanksgiving. Our survey found 72.6 percent believe individuals should wear face masks when celebrating Thanksgiving with people outside their households.

Gov. Ralph Northam said the situation in Virginia is less severe than in other U.S. states but introduced new restrictions to keep it from getting worse. The restriction that affects Thanksgiving celebrations is a limit on indoor and outdoor social gatherings of 25 people.

When asked if readers are concerned about Thanksgiving contributing to the recent rise of coronavirus cases in the U.S. and Virginia, 79.1 percent said yes, 16.9 percent said no, and 4 percent said they were unsure.

Lastly, we asked if readers had additional comments about their celebrations this year. Below are a few of the highlighted comments.

• We have traveled for Thanksgiving for over 30 years. This year, it is just the 2 of us at home with video visits to children on the west coast.
• Not visiting family, who live out of state, but will celebrate with 2 people, for a small group of 3 people. All of us have been staying close to home, especially in the week to 10 days before Thanksgiving. Will eat outside if weather permits, if not, socially distanced outside with an open window or door.
• Although we’ll cook and eat dinner inside with just our household members, my in-laws will come for dessert on our patio outside after dinner. That way we can visit for a short time but not suffer through hours of freezing outside.
• I have a concern that my relatives will not be around to celebrate with next year. Time to live for today.
• Let's do this right and stop this virus. Next year we will truly have something to be thankful for if we do.
• Normally we host family and friends for Thanksgiving. We have had as many as 25 people some years. But this year we are celebrating by ourselves. Our children will do the same, sadly. We will touch base via Facebook. It is the only sane thing to do this year.
• Everyone is quarantining 10 days before and getting tested before 8 person family gathering.
• Having virtual get together with family, and each cooking own dinner.
• We have been quarantining for the past week and a half for a planned trip to see relatives. Last night we decided to cancel. The end of this pandemic is in sight and we didn't want to regret our decision if anyone got sick.
• Officials should stop trying to regulate Thanksgiving gatherings. Americans have individual freedoms and are responsible enough to take appropriate precautions.
• For those who follow guidelines, they should be relatively safe. It will be those who totally disregard recommendations that can cause a problem. It is equally harmful to the mental state of the country to just lock it down.
• I am single and live alone and will spend Thanksgiving the same way as I have spent everyday since March, by myself. I walk two hours everyday wearing a mask.
• We will be quarantining away from family since the kids are coming home from college, we don’t want any possible exposure to their elderly grandparents. Instead we will be celebrating virtually with everyone while having dinner.
• I am not changing anything this year and will celebrate with family as I always have. We are quickly forgetting that tomorrow is not promised and not spending time with family this year may be a huge regret next year. Enough people have lost time with loved ones that have since passed this year and I am going to spend with my family - not through a computer screen or from six feet or more away.
• We are not having my elderly mother over. She will stay at the nursing home. It’s very sad that we have to make this choice.
• Well, I have been pretty much isolated since March, lost my job at the end of October so I am sad to not celebrate with my mom and stepfather but I firmly believe that with a vaccine around the corner, this would be the last Thanksgiving spent alone.