A holiday host once more

Ever since the emergence of COVID-19 in late 2019, the risk of a large-scale shutdown had haunted every holiday season. The year 2021 was perhaps the worst of these in my city of residence, Xi'an, capital city of Shaanxi Province, as a sudden month-long lockdown put months of planning for a charity raffle to an end—forcing an online event to make up for the loss.

As the end of 2022 rolled around, we expected something similar to occur. However, in early December, 2022, news broke that not only would the lockdowns not be happening this year, but all restrictions would be lifted.

While the first reaction amongst many people was one of joy, it was quickly followed by a foreboding feeling, as a greater number of people began to fall ill. One by one, images of sheep ("sheep" is a homophone for “positive test result” in Chinese) filled our WeChat Moments, as medicine flew from the shelves. All of this culminated in the question of when, and not if, we would succumb to the virus.

Still, it had been three years since we'd been anywhere close to assured we would be able to have a Christmas party. In my circle of friends, I had always been the one to host, a mix of a generous upbringing and a touch of Southern hospitality. So, with a tentative spirit, invitations were sent out and preparations got underway.

The preparations themselves immediately ran into a snag, as the formerly reliable logistics of e-commerce giant Alibaba's Taobao shopping platform were feeling the strain of an increasing number of workers falling ill. Holiday staples like turkey needed to be struck from the menu, as imported stocks had never arrived and domestic varieties ran out quickly. A week prior to our intended hosting date, we had no turkey, very few decorations and a growing fear that things wouldn’t work out. And then the virus struck home.

Roughly one week prior to Christmas Eve, my temperature shot through the roof. As it went up, I went down. The next few days were spent fighting a fluctuating fever and forcing down soup and a seemingly unending cocktail of Western and Chinese medicine. Under normal circumstances, I would have already finished procuring all of the necessary items and would have begun minor preparations, but instead I was stuck in bed. Even after recovering myself, my wife fell ill and she seemed to get it worse than I did. However, it still seemed early enough.

Ever the optimist, I told everyone we'd invited that we would be fine before the big night. On the day of the party—Christmas Eve—the whole day was spent preparing food, marinating meats, peeling a mountain of potatoes and generally attempting to get things into place. Though the worst of the COVID symptoms were at this time a thing of the past, there was still some persistent coughing and exhaustion. This meant that when the time for people to arrive rolled around, things were not quite done.

But a few glasses of mulled wine and a charcuterie board did a good job of keeping people occupied until the various things that were in the oven finally popped out. Guests were fed, presents were swapped, and everyone stayed until nearly midnight, all in good cheer.

Was it the perfect Christmas? Perhaps not. But after a long time of uncertainty, spoilt plans and missed events, it was nice to finally welcome friends into our home for Christmas. A much needed time of celebration and joy for us all.