This is an election year. The world is in no small amount of political turmoil. The economy now is more global and communication is nearly instant.<\/p>\n
But the world in 1918 was equally upset. The height of World War I happened in the summer of 1918. Seeing no end in sight, American powers that be pushed for early Christmas shopping<\/strong><\/a> and asked children to forego sleds and dolls in exchange for war bonds from Santa<\/a> that year.<\/p>\n Everything changed on November 11th when the armistice was signed. Soldiers began to return home from the war in a rush to get there before Christmas<\/a>.<\/p>\n U.S. 39th regiment in Seattle, wear masks to prevent influenza. Dec. 1918.<\/p><\/div>\n According to media reports at the time, they were bringing the flu with them. As the worst of the virus spread and killed, the rush to get soldiers home suddenly stopped. In fact, everything was disrupted.<\/p>\n ~ Christmas<\/a> 1918 in Elmira, New York ~<\/strong><\/p>\n During the Christmas<\/a> shopping season of 1918 quarantines were everywhere.<\/p>\n In Elmira, New York, near to the home of my great-grandmother, an all-out \u201cQuarantine Order\u201d was published.<\/p>\n In part it read, \u201call theaters, churches and Sunday schools, public, parochial schools and kindergartens, public libraries and art galleries, pool and billiard rooms and bowling alleys, all places where public meetings of every name and nature including meetings of fraternal, social and labor organizations are held public and private dances, all public funerals to be discontinued, all business houses and mercantile houses in the City of Elmira to discontinue any special sales of any article or articles, that various hospitals restrict visitors, that people overcrowding street cars and that all persons refrain from visiting homes or other places where there is sickness.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cCoughing and sneezing in public places\u201d were to be considered a \u201cmisdemeanor in the future\u201d and would be \u201cpunishable by law.\u201d<\/p>\n Public events such as concerts, rallies, meetings, and conventions were canceled. The dead and the dying created an overflow situation for local funeral homes and newspapers as far away as Philadelphia advertised for both embalmers and coffins to service the city of Elmira, New York.<\/p>\n Fear was rampant.<\/p>\n Weeks after the order was imposed it was lifted but the 21 churches in Elmira refused to accept permission to open on Sundays.<\/p>\n When it was learned that public schools would re-open the churches protested, saying it was too soon.<\/p>\n They were right.<\/p>\n The flu lingered in Elmira into mid-December and beyond.<\/p>\n An article from December 13th in the Star-Gazette said the \u201cBoard of Health realizing Elmira is not free of prevalent disease orders that all homes having influenza patients be quarantined two weeks\u201d.<\/p>\n My great-grandmother died on December 12th.<\/p>\n Her funeral was a very small, private affair that was noted in the paper. Few attended out of fear of getting sick.<\/p>\n Christmas<\/a> for her family just was not celebrated that year. That was not because my great-grandmother died. They just did not want any further illness.<\/p>\n This was the common thinking. Families gathered in very small groups for Christmas<\/a> 1918.<\/p>\n ~ Coronavirus Implications on Christmas<\/a> 2020 ~<\/strong><\/p>\n What could the lessons of 1918 teach us about what\u2019s possible for Christmas<\/a> 2020?<\/p>\n The issues that will affect things first are economic<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n As of this writing (early March 2020), parts of manufacturing in China have been shut down for three full months. Already in the media we have seen warnings of shortages of goods ranging from pharmaceuticals to iPhones.<\/p>\n Christmas<\/a> goods \u2013 things like Christmas<\/a> lights<\/a>, artificial trees, and decorations<\/a> \u2013 are predominantly made in China.<\/p>\n The tradeshows are traditionally held in January and February of each year where orders are placed. Those goods typically ship in the period between May and July, targets that will clearly be missed this year.<\/p>\n \u201cPrices are going up,\u201d says Wayne Tollefson, a wholesaler of Christmas<\/a> lights<\/a> who distributes via major retailers. \u201cWe have had our early orders canceled and our late orders will be arriving later, if at all. This will be a very different selling season for us.\u201d He notes with no small amount of frustration that their staffing will need to be reduced as a result.<\/p>\n Analysts are not yet talking about projections for the Christmas<\/a> shopping season.<\/p>\n \u201cWe just came off a record season, especially online\u201d a spokesperson for the National Retail Federation told MyMerryChristmas.com. \u201cIt\u2019s too early to project anything because we do not yet know what will or will not be affected. That will happen in the months ahead. Is this just a blip in the flow of goods or will it extend into later in the year? We just don\u2019t know yet.\u201d<\/p>\n Complicating matters is the still unknown characteristics of Coronavirus. In some places it is being noted that people who have had the virus are being re-infected after recovering.<\/p>\n The implication of that could mean this strain of the virus may not just dissipate over a season or even come in waves, as the Spanish flu did in 1918. It could be around for a while<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n That has some wondering what social life will be like for Christmas<\/a> 2020.<\/p>\n Can there be Christmas<\/a> concerts? What about Christmas<\/a> parades? Will children be able to sit on Santa\u2019s lap? Can malls host the throngs of shoppers?<\/p>\n Experts are torn over whether COVID-19 will wane in the warmer weather months. While some science backs the idea they just do not know enough about this current strain to confidently say a change in seasons will help.<\/p>\n The medical community is bracing for how the Coronavirus may expand in the southern hemisphere, which is approach its winter months.<\/p>\n ~ Stockpiling Christmas<\/a> Cheer ~<\/strong><\/p>\n The reality that Coronavirus will still be around come Christmas<\/a> is yet unknown.<\/p>\n Will the coronavirus now ravaging China ever go away<\/strong><\/a>? Or is it here to stay, causing ongoing misery?<\/p>\n The answer depends on two possible outcomes: China, the epicenter of the outbreak, gets the virus under control \u2014 or it doesn\u2019t, and permanent new epicenters of infection spring up in poorer, more desperate nations.<\/p>\n Time is of the essence, according to leading infectious disease experts. Since the virus was first identified in December 2019, the number of casualties has skyrocketed. While the rest of the globe has effectively isolated the world\u2019s most populous nation, such extreme measures can\u2019t go on forever. The virus is now in 70 countries and each is struggling now to contain it.<\/p>\n It is increasingly clear this coronavirus could join the many other viruses<\/strong><\/a>, such as chickenpox, the flu and common cold, which forever circulate the globe, seasonally waxing and waning \u2013 until medicines or vaccines save the day.<\/p>\n \u201cOnce you get critical mass, it is very hard for tried and true public health approaches to make an impact,\u201d said Dr. Robert R. Redfield, director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.<\/p>\n With each passing day bringing news of greater infection to further corners of the world the likelihood that Christmas<\/a> 2020 will be different becomes a reality.<\/p>\n \u201cMake your plans now to stockpile the Christmas<\/a> cheer,\u201d Dr. Laurie Williams told us. \u201cGet healthy, practice better hygiene and be flexible. We don\u2019t know if we will have this under control by Christmas<\/a>. But we do know that each home will have to be prepared in new ways and that begins right now. Life will go on. Will it be different? Not really. Christmas<\/a> will still be Christmas<\/a>. You can make a body sick. But you can\u2019t stop love<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" In 1918 the Spanish Flu pandemic hit in three waves \u2013 once in the spring, then again in the fall and once again in the new year of 1919. The second wave of the flu was the most deadly, killing more than 195,000 people during that stage of the event. In Western New York State […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":29394,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","iawp_total_views":8,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[771,22,769,770,772],"class_list":["post-29391","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-christmas-news","tag-771","tag-christmas","tag-coronavirus","tag-flu","tag-pandemic"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29391","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29391"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29391\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29394"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29391"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29391"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29391"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Christmas](\"https:\/\/mmc-220a5.kxcdn.com\/x\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/main_1500-2-1024x711.jpg\")
![\"Christmas](\"https:\/\/mmc-220a5.kxcdn.com\/x\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/Masks_redcross-860-860x572-1-300x200.jpg\")
Hotels and public halls were converted into make-shift hospitals. Families were quarantined in their homes for weeks at a time.<\/p>\n