Amid a national emergency, millions of Americans have found themselves working and schooling from home for days on end. It’s a situation playing out around the globe as the novel coronavirus continues to spread. However, each country is dealing with it differently. In Italy and Spain, they’re singing on their balconies and playing high-altitude tennis, but in the United States, folks are putting up their Christmas lights and breaking out the lawn chairs.
“What if we all put our Christmas lights back up? Then we could get in the car and drive around and look at them. That seems like a fair social distancing activity,” Lane Grindle, a radio broadcaster with the Milwaukee Brewers baseball team, suggested on Twitter Sunday.
What if we all put our Christmas lights back up? Then we could get in the car and drive around and look at them. That seems like a fair social distancing activity.
— Lane Grindle (@lanegrindle) March 15, 2020
However, folks didn’t wait for Gindle’s pitch - they were already in motion across the country.
Today a few of my neighbours decided we needed a bit more light in this dark time and decided to turn their Christmas lights back on. I hope it brings a smile to you face like it did mine. pic.twitter.com/MukgY36FTj
— Nadine (@NadineGB204) March 18, 2020
“There are dark times ahead,” one Twitterer noted, “but I can still put love & light out into the world.”
There are dark times ahead, but I can still put love & light out into the world.
— Sarah Bang (@DrBang_Wx) March 18, 2020
Some folks have mentioned putting up Christmas lights to cheer up people in quarantine, in isolation, or just to remind the world there’s still light & hope. Here’s my contribution💛#LightsForLife pic.twitter.com/S8Mx8bQ28I
“Lights are on tonight as a sign of hope and the sweet mind of my 10 year old,” one father said.
My youngest son was bored today and said, "can we put Christmas lights on our tree outside to cheer us up?" Great idea buddy. Lights are on tonight as a sign of hope and the sweet mind of my 10 year old. #Rhodeisland #hope #lovemysons #Christmas #Cumberland pic.twitter.com/qhVjeuLc02
— Mike Griffin (@rhodyknowsbest) March 16, 2020
However, one user noted they had never taken their Christmas lights down! Maybe what they say is true, and if you wait long enough, everything will come back into style?
World getting you down? We are so lazy that we never took down our Christmas lights. So, we turned them back on! #behappy #COVID19 pic.twitter.com/1k4D9vJodg
— April Watkins (@apernywatkins) March 18, 2020
However, hanging lights wasn’t the only activity Americans were doing at a safe, 6-foot distance from one another. Social media users also shared photos of their neighbors spaced well apart on their front lawns so as to not accidentally communicate the virus along with the latest gossip.
Connection is becoming ever more challenging and ever more important in this time of social distancing so it was so great to briefly celebrate St. Paddy’s Day in our neighborhood and to reconnect and recommit to helping each other through this. pic.twitter.com/w0Bl64cUA5
— Jeanne Langley (@jnne) March 18, 2020
@barstoolsports @BarstoolBigCat @PardonMyTake my dad texted the neighborhood dads for social distancing beers tonight. Electric performance pic.twitter.com/eP3dlzn7dQ
— Gary McCabe (@gary_mccabe_) March 17, 2020
Hello my friends parents and their neighbors had a social distancing party!!! pic.twitter.com/JaLXGvVQd5
— Shaguna (@soyshagu) March 17, 2020
It’s only a matter of time until they try out their choir voices!
