Many North Shore residents appear to be heeding the advice of public health officials by avoiding large family gatherings this Thanksgiving.
Instead of sitting down to a traditional turkey dinner with their extended families, many locals are opting to eat with only their immediate family to cut down on the risk of spreading the coronavirus.
“We’re just staying home,” said Lynnfield resident Deanne Healey. “It’s just our immediate family. We were originally going to get together with another close friend, but with the rise in cases and (since) she’s got elderly parents, we decided we’re not going to take that risk. We’re just going to stay home and do something small.”
Healey, who led the Peabody Chamber of Commerce before leaving for a position at Salem Five Bank, said she would typically celebrate Thanksgiving with her extended family, but this year it will only be with her husband and daughter.
Her son lives in Chicago, but decided not to come home for Thanksgiving because of the high infection rates in the Windy City. This year will be especially hard, Healey said, as her mother — who has Alzheimer’s and lives in a residential care facility — won’t be able to join the family for dinner.
Like others interviewed, Healey said she was still planning to cook a traditional Thanksgiving meal, but one that is scaled back to account for fewer people at the dinner table.
“I have a vision of us eating mashed potatoes for a week for breakfast, lunch and dinner,” jokes Dianne Kuzia Hills, executive director of My Brother’s Table, who only plans to eat dinner with her immediate family.
While Hills would typically celebrate with her extended family, this year she’s only cooking for four people.
Swampscott Town Administrator Sean Fitzgerald added: “I’m cooking everything that’s orange and we’re keeping it really to immediate family.
“We’re going to Zoom in with some folks and we’re going to try to keep everybody safe,” said Fitzgerald. “It’s so hard, but there’s such a huge transmission right now both in Swampscott, but (also) in the region and in Massachusetts and across the nation, so we all have to just stay the course and get through the holiday season as safely as possible.
“That’s what you can be really thankful about. You’ve got to keep your chin up and also your mask up.”
Lynn City Councilor Dianna Chakoutis is also choosing to only celebrate with her immediate family. It’s a departure from past years, where she would usually see her whole family on the holiday.
“I’m just staying home with my son and daughter-in-law. We live in the same house,” said Chakoutis. “We’ll cook a turkey. We’re having our own Thanksgiving, the three of us, instead of a crowd.”
Private family gatherings are not the only Thanksgiving tradition the virus has put a damper on this year. With cases spiking locally, statewide and across the country, restaurants that typically serve Thanksgiving meals to the needy have also had to reimagine their holiday plans.
For the past 27 years, George Markos has been serving meals on Thanksgiving to anybody who stops by his Lynn restaurant, Brothers Deli. But people don’t only come for the food — many don’t have anywhere else to go and come so they don’t have to spend their holiday alone.
However, Markos will only be serving to-go turkey dinners this year, a scenario he prepared for months ago when he installed a window on the side of his restaurant.
“We’re doing take-out only,” said Markos. “(It’s going to be) the same exact thing, but because with COVID, you don’t know what’s going on so we don’t want to risk people and ourselves. So, we’re just going to do it through the window.”
Last year, more than 1,000 free Thanksgiving meals were served at Brothers Deli, but Markos is not sure if the change will result in the same crowds.
Regardless, his preparation won’t change. He’s going to cook the same number of turkeys — 200 — and will also be making mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, squash and another vegetable.
Although restrictions have made things more difficult this year, Markos said he didn’t consider canceling his annual meal distribution.
“People need this in the hard times,” said Markos. “They don’t need this in the good times. “(We’re) going to try to somehow connect with the people, but at the same time we will have safety measures. We’re going to keep serving distanced, but we will go outside to talk to people, even if it’s cold.”
At My Brother’s Table, Hills said they have also decided to serve to-go turkey dinners instead of having people sit down to eat together.
The Lynn soup kitchen will be open from noon to 6 p.m. on Thanksgiving for people to come by and pick up meals for themselves, their families or neighbors, she said.
“We do lose that social aspect, but we’re putting together a real nice meal and we have some good volunteers coming that day so hopefully that makes up for it a little bit,” said Hills. “I think people are glad that we’ll be open and they’ll have some place they can go.”