The CDC reveals 11 tips for how to celebrate Christmas, holidays this year

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released new guidelines for how to celebrate safely this holiday season to minimize your risk of coronavirus infection.

• “Attending gatherings to celebrate events and holidays increases your risk of getting and spreading COVID-19,” the CDC said. “The safest way to celebrate is virtually, with people who live with you, or outside and at least 6 feet apart from others.”

The CDC had 11 major tips for celebrating during the holiday season, including:

• Decorate your home with the holiday spirit.
• Hold a video chat party with friends and family.
• Host a meal with people who live with you.
• Hold an outdoor celebration with social distancing.
• Watch virtual parties or celebrations.
• Drive or walk around your neighborhood and wave at your neighbors.
• Take some food or a gift to your friends and family, without making contact.
• “Throw a virtual dance party and collaborate with friends and family on a playlist,” the CDC said.
• Celebrate outside with your neighbors.
• Volunteer to help those in need.
• Attend a virtual party.

The CDC said it’s possible for you to host and attend indoor events, too. It’s important to know when to wear a mask at those events and to get vaccinated if you are eligible to do so.

• “If celebrating indoors, bring in fresh air by opening windows and doors, if possible. You can use a window fan in one of the open windows to blow air out of the window. This will pull fresh air in through the other open windows,” the CDC said.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told CBS’s “Face the Nation” over the weekend that it’s still too early to make a decision on what you should do for the holidays.

• “We’ve just got to concentrate on continuing to get those numbers down, and not try to jump ahead by weeks or months and say what we’re going to do at a particular time,” he said. “Let’s focus like a laser on continuing to get those cases down, and we can do it by people getting vaccinated and also in the situation where boosters are appropriate to get people boosted.”