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Yes, Thanksgiving will probably look different for many of us this year — but it’s a blessing that we can still find ways to laugh at it.
“The Tonight Show” host Jimmy Fallon kicked off a hashtag game on Twitter TWTR, -1.72% on Monday afternoon, inviting followers to tweet a Thanksgiving tradition that has been updated for 2020. And the year has certainly provided plenty of hot topics for folks to riff off of, namely the pandemic and the U.S. presidential election. So the replies came pouring in, leading the hashtag #NewThanksgivingTraditions to start trending.
Fallon kicked things off by joking that instead of the cutesy tradition of the U.S. president pardoning a Thanksgiving turkey, this year the turkey would pardon the president. This stems from a CNN report that President Donald Trump has asked whether he has the power to pardon himself on his way out the door (as the Associated Press and other media outlets have called the election for Joe Biden, although the president has yet to concede) amid investigations into his businesses and finances.
Plenty of others got political, too, such as comparing the tradition of counting your blessings around the Thanksgiving dinner table to the calls from the president and his supporters to either stop counting or to keep counting votes.
The pandemic inspired the most responses, of course, as confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the U.S. passed the 11 million mark on Monday, and deaths from the virus approach 250,000. Health officials, including those from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and leading U.S. infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci, have called for Americans to skip visiting extended family and friends this year, and to instead stay home and hold smaller gatherings with just their immediate households.
Some folks said that the stay-at-home guidance was a great excuse to skip the stress of getting the family together, or noted that there would be more interactions via videoconferencing software like Zoom ZM, -1.09%, which has been a breakout star of quarantine life this year.
Some teased that they were not only going to insist their visiting relatives get tested for COVID-19, but that the food would be expected to pass rigorous health checks, as well.
Others harkened back to the shortages of personal protective equipment (PPE) and toilet paper as panic-shoppers stockpiled those goods in the spring, as the first cases of COVID-19 were reported in the U.S.
All kidding aside, cases of the coronavirus have been surging across the country, and there is a real concern over hospitals becoming overwhelmed with patients again, as they were in the spring, as well as there not being enough PPE for medical workers. The following guides can help you and your family prepare to have a safe Thanksgiving holiday.
Read:How to throw together a smaller, no-fuss Thanksgiving dinner at the last minute
For the latest on the presidential election, including key dates to watch in Trump’s legal fight to overturn the results, visit MarketWatch’s 2020 election page.
And click here to stay up-to-date on the coronavirus pademic and the latest news on vaccine development, such as the promising candidates from Moderna MRNA, +9.57% and from BioNTech BNTX, -13.66% and Pfizer PFE, -3.34%.
