Tinsel and COVID-19 tests: How some families hope to gather for a pandemic Christmas

 
TORONTO --
The dining room table in the Matheson house runs long -- so long that Cheryl Kinney Matheson wondered if it provided the social distance needed for COVID-19 precautions.
If so, the 68-year-old reasoned she could host her extended relatives on Christmas Day as usual, imagining that guests would sit at one end of the table while her pandemic bubble remained at the other.
It didn't take long for the Kenora, Ont., retiree to realize she was spiraling into "mental gymnastics" to justify pursuing her Christmas wish. She ultimately abandoned that plan.
"We were trying to make happen what we wanted to have happen from previous years," Matheson said earlier this month, the day her northern Ontario region was downgraded from a "green" to "yellow" COVID-19 zone. "At some point you just have to go: This is so unusual this year, just let it be."

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