Celebrating Thanksgiving .... The 'Pod' Way

Spread across the country for the past 14 years, my extended family and I always get together in November to celebrate Thanksgiving. We eat the same food each year, we set the table the same way, and for that single meal, all seems right with the world.

Except this year. I haven’t seen my family since February — my final visit to them pre-pandemic — and I just got the news that they won’t be visiting us this year, thanks to COVID. So I immediately phoned my pandemic "pod" — you know, the tiny group of friends who have become family in 2020. They’ve been the people I went apple picking with; the group that jumped in my inflatable pool on Independence Day; the same people who stayed up late on election night with me. Of course, they’ll be my family this Thanksgiving.

Families across America are separated this year not by space, but by COVID, and many are choosing to celebrate turkey day just like me: With their Quarantine Pods. Just like everything else in 2020, T-Day will look different. And also the same. But this time, we’re thankful that we’re able to surround ourselves with the people we love — regardless of whether they’re family, friends or a little of A and a little of B.

“We’re lucky that we have a large and stable pod of folks who genuinely enjoy each other’s company, but we’ll really miss the larger group and the traditions we’ve built up over the years,” says Jonas Bordo, CEO and co-founder of Dwellsy.

For the past 25 years, Bordo has been celebrating Thanksgiving with his 55-person extended family. 

This year, it wasn’t an option. 

Infectious Disease experts have suggested that families either plan outdoor, masked events with their families — or — even better, that they stick with the routine they’ve been doing since March. Anthony Fauci, the federal government’s infectious disease specialist, urged the public to forgo the festivities this year, as the large gatherings are classified as a high risk of virus transmission. Choose to gather with your traditional Thanksgiving family group, and this could mean weeks of quarantining, COVID tests and . . . political arguments. 

So most people this year are choosing instead to stay home and quarantine with their stable pod. Pandemic pods, AKA quaranteams, aka bubbles, were originally formed for school children who needed to work in shared groups at home. But the “pod” term expanded, and now we have vacation pods, trick-or-treating pods and finally, Thanksgiving pods. The people in those pods never change — but the events they serve to support continue to evolve.