ROME (AP) – Families that usually reunite at Christmas over a hearty, lingering meal celebrated on Fridays, services shifted online and gift exchanges were low in one of the most unusual and subdued holiday seasons in decades.
The coronavirus has left almost no one untouched.
Patricia Hager, 60, delivered homemade caramel buns for breakfast to family and friends in Bismarck, North Dakota, a state that was not hit until later in the pandemic but was hit hard. It seemed that every time she opened her door this holiday season, someone left smoked salmon, baskets of nuts, or cookies.
“This year, Christmas love is being expressed at the door,” she said. “I am happy that there will probably be people with us next year with the vaccines. I can give up anything for that. “
Song Ju-hyeon from Paju, South Korea, near Seoul, said she was expecting a child to feel safe in February. The government reported 1,241 new cases on Friday, a new day record for the country.
“It doesn’t feel like Christmas anyway, there are no Christmas carols played in the street,” she said.
“It’s Christmask,” said the Daily Nation newspaper in Kenya, where an increase in the number of cases led doctors to halt a brief Christmas Eve strike. Celebrations were muffled in the East African center because a curfew prevented church vigils at night.
Pope Francis released his Christmas blessing from the Vaticanand broke with his traditional speech from the balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica to tens of thousands in St. Peter’s Square. Tourism in Italy has all but disappeared and the government’s coronavirus restrictions for the holidays thwarted locals’ plans to flock to the square.
Francis cited a cause for optimism, saying that the development of COVID-19 vaccines is shedding “light of hope” on the world. In a passionate appeal to leaders, companies and international organizations, he said they must ensure that the most vulnerable and needy in the pandemic are first in line to get the vaccine.
Bells rang around Bethlehem as the traditional birthplace of Jesus was celebrated. But the closure of Israel’s international airport to foreign tourists, along with Palestinian restrictions banning intercity travel in the areas they control in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, kept visitors away.
In Beijing, official churches abruptly canceled mass after the Chinese capital was put on edge last week after two confirmed COVID-19 cases. Two new asymptomatic cases were reported Friday.
As economies around the world falter, it was not a year of lavish gifts. Robin Sypniewski of Middlesex County, New Jersey, took two leave of absence from her job to serve school lunches and now has fewer hours as her husband retires next week as a garbage collector and her daughter struggles with student debts.
Sypniewski, 58, bought her daughter’s pajamas, compared to a diamond bracelet last Christmas. Her husband was given a $ 20 plaque describing his Polish heritage, compared to a tablet last year.
“The bills have to be paid this month and next month. With the reduced hours it is difficult, ”she said.
In Sao Paulo, Brazil, taxi driver Dennys Abreu, 56, navigated the sprawling city at night to pay the $ 300 monthly payment for his car, which he bought after losing a job in construction. An estimated 14 million Brazilians are unemployed.
“All I can do is work as much as I can, make ends meet and hope this damn virus goes away next year,” he said.
Meanwhile, church services shifted online. The Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles celebrated five masses at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels, with a maximum of 130 people, compared to a pre-pandemic capacity of about 3,000. They were all streamed live.
The Chapel of the Cross in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, had five services, but personal attendance was limited to 25 people, compared to a staggering 2,000 before the pandemic. A Christmas Eve parade that is normally performed in person was recorded and shown online.
“I must remember that Christians have been celebrating Christmas in all kinds of circumstances for hundreds of years,” said Pastor Elizabeth Marie Melchionna, the church pastor. “Some outward appearances are different and yet the essence remains the same. What hasn’t changed is that essential desire and feast for love that is born at Christmas. “
In Paris, members of the Notre Dame choir sang for the first time since a 2019 fire in the church, wearing safety helmets and protective suits against construction conditions.
There was grief among families of more than 1.7 million people worldwide who were killed by the virus and about 80 million infected.
Margarita Reyes, 60, is one of four people in her home who contract the virus in Calexico, California, near the Mexican border. Her 69-year-old husband died within three weeks, and her 35-year-old daughter was on an oxygen device for five months. They were too sad to celebrate.
Suzanne Rose of Raleigh, North Carolina, delivered homemade spaghetti to the door of her quarantined daughter, a restaurant manager who was exposed to the virus at work. Her son, a firefighter, was also exposed.
“The sky went out of the balloon” without her children at Christmas, she said. Video chat was no substitute for watching movies in the same room with them and her husband.
Border closures and bottlenecks thwarted some plans. Thousands of drivers were stranded in their trucks in the English port of Dover, in the absence of the coronavirus tests required by France due to growing concerns about a new, apparently more contagious variant. The British Army and French firefighters were called in to speed up testing and free food was distributed.
With Colombia closing its borders to prevent the virus from spreading, Venezuelan migrants were unable to return home during the holidays. Yakelin Tamaure, a nurse who left the economically devastated Venezuela two years ago, wanted to visit her mother, who is tending a broken foot.
“I’m trying to send her money, but it’s not the same as being there,” she said.
But many incorporated restrictions. A pre-pandemic Christmas in Ann Arbor, Michigan, meant for Kristin Schrader, 53, a big dinner with snacks for her brother who is visiting from Denver, her parents, who live in the city, and friends who are passing by. This year she opted for a social outing with her husband and 13-year-old daughter to watch a man dressed as Santa canoe with his dog across the icy Huron River. A low-key fondue dinner was also on the agenda.
“It’s just really hard when you’re all in the same house to get a lot of excitement for the three of us to stare at each other for months and months,” she said.
The 70 residents of St. Peters, a nursing home in the northern Spanish town of El Astillero, held video chats or 30-minute visits to family, separated by a plexiglass wall.
“This terrible thing happened to us, so we have to accept it and deal with it patiently,” said Mercedes Arejula, who met her mother.
The nursing home only let in one family member. A granddaughter blew kisses from the outside.
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Spagat reported from San Diego.
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AP correspondents from around the world contributed to this report.
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This story has been corrected to show that Suzanne Rose is from Raleigh, North Carolina, not Winston-Salem.
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