For many of us, the holidays mean lots of time spent with family, friends, good food, favorite movies, games, and close quarters. Whether you look forward to this all year or you dread it, it’s safe to say that things are different in 2020. Whether you’re planning to host for the holidays, attend a gathering, or you’re staying home, it’s important to take extra precautions to keep yourself and your loved ones healthy. We believe that the more information and education you have related to COVID-19, the more likely you are not to catch it or spread it. 

• Only invite a small group of people, and be sure you know everyone personally and have their contact information. That way, if someone tests positive, you can alert everyone in the group.

• Ask everyone to prepare ahead of time by isolating or (even better) by taking a COVID test - many cities offer free testing, so this should not be a problem. 

• A day before the gathering, remind everyone of the rules: don’t come if you feel any symptoms, wear your mask the whole time, maintain your distance, no hugs or handshakes, wash your hands or use hand sanitizer regularly, etc. 

• Before people arrive, deep clean and disinfect everything, especially high-touch surfaces. Tip: according to the CDC, cleaning is an important step in the process of sanitizing and disinfecting because it removes any dirt or surface debris that could prevent the disinfectant from penetrating germs and doing its job. 

• Remind everyone not to touch their face unless they have washed their hands or applied hand sanitizer! 

• Host your gathering in a space where you can maintain 6 feet of space between people, preferably al fresco if you can. 

• Have hand sanitizing stations available, and encourage guests to wash their hands frequently, for 20 seconds under warm water with soap. Offer disposable paper products for drying hands by every sink. 

• If you’re serving food or drinks, use disposable products and have one or two assigned people do all the serving, wearing masks and gloves, so people can avoid touching serving utensils. 

• Use trash cans with a foot pedal or ones without a lid, if you can, so people don’t have to touch the top to throw away their trash. 

• While people are present, spray anything that is touched - use a product like Clean Republic that you can safely spray around people, babies, pets, and food, without needing to wipe. This way, you don’t have to touch anything and you can just spray and keep enjoying your time spent with friends and family. 

• Once everyone leaves, keep your mask on and put on your gloves to deep clean and disinfect everything. Remember to take the trash out before you take your gloves off.

• Lastly, take a shower! 

It should be noted that, according to the CDC, staying in isolation offers the lowest risk of contracting the virus. We are not offering advice on whether or not you should gather - please make the best possible choice for yourself, based on the information that is available to you.