Clever Grandparents Find Creative Way In Order To Still Be With Family During Coronavirus Pandemic

Nov 25, 2020 by apost team

Texas couple Missy and Barry Buchanan came up with a safe, creative, and socially-distanced way to celebrate the holidays with their grandchildren this year. The Buchanans sent their family members life-sized cardboard cutouts of themselves this November.

Missy and Barry Buchanan sent cutouts of themselves to their daughter, who also lives in Texas, and to their son, who lives in California.

"Now that we're not going to go, what can we do to make it fun and not make it a sad time, because there's just so much so much sadness and chaos and uncertainty in the world," Buchanan told CNN.

Health officials, politicians, and journalists from across the political spectrum have urged families throughout the country to rethink their holiday plans due to the coronavirus pandemic, which is currently seeing a resurgence in the United States.

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People with certain medical conditions and the elderly are at risk for serious complications from the coronavirus, and thus it’s particularly important not to expose family members who belong to that group. That’s precisely why Miss and Barry Buchanan, who are grandparents, decided to get creative and sit this holiday season out.

In a relevant New York Times opinion piece, Priya Parker, the author of The Art of Gathering: How We Meet and Why It Matters, wrote in a piece entitled Abandon Your Thanksgiving Script that families should rethink what it means to celebrate together.

“All rituals begin as improv, and the lucky ones suffer the curse of becoming scripts. This year, the scripts aren’t going to work for many people,” Parker, who is an expert on gatherings, writes. “So we should treat these times as ‘an offer,’ and ask ourselves how we would construct these celebrations if we were starting from scratch.”

The Buchanans seem to have embraced this attitude.

"I just think we should be in the mindset of just, trying to make the most positive thing that we can out of it because it doesn't do any good just to complain and be miserable and gripe," Missy Buchanan said. "We can still have fun. It's just going to be a different kind of fun. And knowing that it's not going to last forever, and we all will be back together again, hopefully soon."

Before the coronavirus pandemic hit, Missy and Barry Buchanan would spend the holidays in either Texas or California, but the couple told CNN that they didn’t feel safe traveling to their children's houses this year. In lieu of an in-person visit, Missy and Barry Buchanan told their children that they would be receiving something in the mail — a surprise.

Mindy Whittington, one of the Buchanans’ daughters, said that she didn’t think much of the package given that her parents often send her and her 3-year-old son Noah Whittington thoughtful gifts.

"We weren't really expecting anything that crazy," Whittington told CNN. "We opened it up together and we just could not stop laughing."

"It was just nice to have a moment of lightness and laughter in such an intense year and even just to remember that, hey, this is just a year, we're not all in lockdown for life," Whittington added.

That’s exactly what Parker emphasizes in her Times column. She explains that an “even more creative, phase of reinventing the holiday is asking what is needed from the holiday at this time, rather than the usual question of what the holiday demands of us.” She adds, “Don’t start with questions like, What’s the best way to brine a turkey? Start by asking, What is it that we need this year for this Thanksgiving?”

And it seems that the Buchanans decided they all needed a bit of laughter and levity.

According to Whittington, her son Noah Whittington was also amused. He jumped up and down, laughed, and gave his cardboard grandparents a hug. Mr. Whittington caught the whole thing on video.

Matthew Buchanan, Missy and Barry Buchanan’s son, detailed a similar experience at his house. His children — which include Quintin, 12, Oliver, who turns 10 in the coming weeks, and Clara, 6 — like to take pictures with the cutouts of their grandparents around the house. And when they first opened the package, Mathew Buchanan says he and his son "basically fell on the floor laughing.”

"Everybody was sort of confused and laughing, and it was a funny little scene," he added in his interview with CNN.

Unfortunately, one of the Buchanans’ children, a daughter who lives in Ireland, didn’t get the cardboard surprise because she doesn’t have space for the 6-foot-tall cutouts of mom and dad. But perhaps when the Buchanans can reunite as a family, they’ll all get a chance to pose with their cardboard look-alikes.

How are you celebrating this holiday season? Let us know and be sure to pass this creative idea on to inspire other families!