An inconvenient Christmas?
Christmas usually is a time of being together. Due to the Corona pandemic, this year will be different – but there are still possibilities to stay connected
An entry by Mika Engelhardt und Laura-Marie Buxmann
Wednesday, December 23, 2020
Media, Technology and Society
Christmas usually is a time of being together: Enjoying good food with the family, freezing our feet off at Christmas markets with friends, drinking hot wine together and shopping for the last presents in crowded cities. This year the whole Christmas experience will be a lot different due to the ongoing Corona pandemic. But does this really mean Christmas is going to suck this year?
It was an awe-inspiring, almost never seen before kind of moment. On December 9, 2020, German chancellor Angela Merkel hat to audibly and visibly fight back her tears and emotions when addressing the parliament to discuss whether it was necessary to tighten the Covid-19-related restrictions just a few days before Christmas. This unusually emotional appearance underlined what everybody had already known about Christmas 2020: This year, everything will be very different.
The Corona-Holidays
As winter continues, Covid-19 is surging around the world, causing closures of restaurants, bars, theatres, cinemas and museums. Travel is restricted and people are urged to stay at home and spend the holidays alone or in the smallest possible groups. Since the beginning of November, Germany had tried to bring down the number of new Covid-infections by what is known as “Lockdown light”, a model that allowed many shops to remain open and urged people to act responsible. But the numbers didn’t decrease. They reached new highs every week. As of a few days before Christmas, daily new cases average 30,000 and between 700 and 900 lives are usually lost because of the virus. It became more and more obvious that “Lockdown light” was not effective. That is why Angela Merkel gave her speech and that is also why the German government decided on tighter restrictions starting December 16.
Those restrictions include the closure of all non-essential shops (e.g. clothing, multimedia, toys, books), an earlier start into the holidays for schools and kindergarten, a ban for alcoholic drinks in public places, a ban for the sale of fireworks before New Year’s and strict rules on how many people from how many households are allowed to meet. For Christmas, those rules are changed to allow families to meet, but on New Year’s, they remain tight. This is not just sad for the individual person; it’s also tragic for shops, restaurants and cultural events. All of those places and businesses usually count on the holiday season to make a big chunk of their yearly profits.
Let’s first take a look at the numbers to see what kinds of amounts we are talking about. November and December are some of the busiest months of the year for businesses. Especially in retail, around 18 (furniture and clothing) and 25 percent (books and jewellery) of the yearly profits is usually generated within those two months. The average German spends somewhere between 250 and 500 Euros just for the holidays, there is competing research on that matter.
This mass of money leads to astonishing numbers. Even with the ongoing Covid-19-pandemic, it is estimated that Christmas trade in 2020 will lead to sales worth 103.9 billion Euros, up 1.2 percent from 2019. That is still an increase, but by a significantly smaller margin than it were the years before. Generally, it can be said that since 2010, every year has seen an increase in Christmas-related sales.
For some fun side facts, in 2020, there were 151 million chocolate Santa Clauses produced in Germany. 29.8 million Christmas trees were sold in 2019 (there is no number of 2020 available yet because the sale of Christmas trees is still going on). 36 percent of Germans would like to finish all their Christmas shopping in the first half of December. Many fail. And in 2020, the Christmas present of choice for Germans is the voucher – understandable, since many places have to stay shut and can only offer those.
So right now, we’re looking at closed stores, no chance to go out to shop or meet friends at a Christmas market, everybody is worried about seeing their grandparents for the holidays and most people have moved their Christmas shopping into the internet. The German post service has to deal with unheard numbers of packages that have to be delivered before Christmas. From 2019 to 2020, the proportion of online trade in Christmas shopping has increased 4 percent, from 14.4 to 18.3. That leads to sales worth 17.5 billion Euros. This is in line with a trend over recent years showing that people tend to shop online more and more. For example, in 2007, only 3.2 percent of all Christmas shopping was made through the internet and that number has steadily risen since. But the 4 percent jump from 2019 to 2020 is still a significant one; usually it is around 1 to 1.5 percent.
The state is trying to help the struggling businesses by passing bills that give money to cities and retail shops. There is also the possibility to cheapen or even suspend rental fees, since stores can’t operate. But the sad reality is that some stores, bars and restaurants will never reopen. They were already struggling because of the restrictions in early 2020 and the lockdown around Christmas is just too much to handle for many.
New ways of celebrating Christmas
Christmas 2020, looking at it from that angle, seems pretty bleak and depressing. But wherever there is fear and hopelessness, people are finding a way to brighten up and bring some Christmas joy in unusual ways. Some of them, we would like to present now. Many small businesses have moved into the internet and offer pick-up or delivery shopping. This is a great way to support them without having to stand in a crowded store. There is also of course the opportunity to shop online, but that does not help the smaller, struggling stores. Even some restaurants have developed special menus and deliveries for the holidays. In Germany, many people enjoy fish or goose for Christmas, and there are several restaurants that offer complete Christmas menus for entire families to take home instead of eating in. And lastly, there is a point to be made for DIY-presents. They don’t just come from a personal place and are created with care, they are also more sustainable and environmentally friendly than delivered packages or factory-made goods. As for the Christmas spirit, we all have to keep in mind that Christmas is not cancelled. There is still a wide variety of things that we can do to brighten up our days. Christmas movies, cookie baking, decorating rooms and trees are things that are just as possible in 2020 as they were in 2019.
Some people might be sad that Christmas parties and even workplace get-togethers had to be cancelled because of the pandemic, but the internet offers fun alternatives. In 2020, we have all become best friends with services like Microsoft Teams, Skype and Zoom and those places that we usually use to study or work, work just as fine as a virtual space to have a Christmas party, play games and generally have a fun time. There are also special platforms for digital gatherings like https://gather.town/ that allow their users to create virtual spaces, game rooms and party locations. With their digital avatars, users can then walk through those locations and video chat with the people they “meet” there. One of the authors of this blog post had the opportunity to join one of those parties and had a really good time. It’s even possible to meet new people and colleagues that way and has the added fun of being a game-like experience.
And while Christmas markets had to remain shut this year, some of them have also moved into the digital space. In Germany, there is a platform that lets users choose their preferred cities and walk through a virtual Christmas market, where they can shop just as usual. If you’d like to try that out, this is the address: https://wintermarkt.online/. For a more tasteful alternative, some Christmas market stands have started hot wine, bratwurst and roasted almond delivery services that are usually just a Google search away. Lastly, many cultural places like theatres have developed Christmas-appropriate entertainment over the year and now present them via online streams. Christmas is a time for many people to go to see a show or a play, and that is a way to still let them have those experiences and support their local theatres. For example, the Staatstheater Darmstadt offers their kid-friendly play “Aladdin and the magic lamp” as an on-demand-stream over the holidays. As a student in Darmstadt, you can even get those for free, but you can also choose to purchase a ticket to support the artists. And our tips for things to do on New Year’s? Good question! Just stay the f*ck home. Have a relaxing night, enjoy the unusual silence and think about the millions of pets in Germany that don’t have the worst night of their year because of all the lights and explosions. Have some good food. It will all be fine.
In conclusion, yes, Christmas will be very different this year. There are a lot of unfortunate developments and it sucks to not be able to see and hug friends and family for the holidays. Businesses are also struggling and some might never open again. But we also should keep in mind that Christmas is not cancelled. It can still happen, we can still get into the Christmas spirit and do our best to have a few great, relaxing days in these times of uncertainty. Hopefully, by next year, things will go back to normal and we get to meet, go to Christmas markets and be annoyed by the huge crowds in the stores again.
But until then: Stay safe, stay positive (no, not that positive!) and have a great Christmas! We’ll see you next year. Enjoy the holidays.