Celebrating Milestones When Under Quarantine

Celebrating milestones under quarantine is the new norm. Just because the locale is different, the celebration can be memorable.

No one certainly could have predicted how the month of March would end up for those in the US or even other countries in 2020. A world pandemic?

While it is certainly unprecedented, celebrating milestones that had been planned were suddenly in question. Do we have a party? Can we go out to dinner? Very quickly as the pandemic grew, restaurants were forced to close except for take-out and bars shut down to patrons.

So what does one do, when their child has a 21st birthday during a pandemic and there are stay at home orders in place?

Modify and Adapt.

Acknowledge it Will Be Different

At first, there was shock, probably some sadness and even some grief for everyone with the abrupt shift of plans. It’s certainly not fair, but acknowledge that what milestone you were celebrating is important, and going to be different. The differences may be huge – from a large, social celebration at a bar to an orchestrated pub crawl by your mom.  Case in point – we visited Brother’s Bedrooma, La Officia, The Livingroom Sports Bar and the Kitchen Cafe.

Photo credit Tina Karnath

Photo credit Tina Karnath

To make this still seem like fun, even though away from his college campus and friends who could go with him, we had a Pub Crawl. Put some beers or drinks in each room of your house, or add in the deck and the garage and now it’s a big event. Add some pretzels and snacks, who could even tell you didn’t make it out to the bar?

While hosting a Pub Crawl or participating in a “real” one, you can expect many things, according to Pubcrawls.com. Once the crisis has passed, he’ll be able to go out to the bar and safely celebrate with his friends – the real way. It might seem like a long ways off, but the chance will get here.

Plan for Celebration When Appropriate

Every year, for the last 35+ years in our small town, there is a Walleye Festival where almost the whole town turns out for the beer tent. This year he would have been able to attend, however, social distancing rules put in place will still be in effect when the festival was supposed to happen. In keeping with celebrating milestones in an unusual way, we decided to throw his own beer tent birthday party.

Set up the easy-up tent, place some chairs and even a table and pass out the beers in plastic cups. Add in some iTunes radio and now it’s a fun festival – modified. Your parents’ cheesiness is OK for now, just keep remembering that when it is appropriate, a real celebration will take place. It’s a little chilly in Michigan for the beer tent, but we made it a quick pic!

Keep Positive

No one likes to change fun plans you have spent weeks and months looking forward to. However, in this time frame, celebrating milestones will have to be different. Keep positive that this too, shall pass and we can get the calendar filled back up with fun events to celebrate all of your life’s milestones – the right way.

Have you had a milestone celebration while staying in? Share your celebration with #FoodSided and we will celebrate with you.