A very Covid Christmas: Meat ‘gingerbread’ houses to face-masked Santas, the strangest festive creations from a very peculiar year

How some are redefining our Chrismas rituals in light of the pandemic

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People around the world celebrating Christmas have embraced the unusual events of the year by reinventing their festive traditions.  

Imaginations have run wild in the form of charcuterie chalets, coronavirus-themed decorations and pigs in blanket cheesecakes.

“In lieu of gingerbread”, said Instagram user Syntaxchen, when posting an impressive log cabin-style edible Christmas house made of grissini breadsticks, a roof of sliced salami meat and decorated with rosemary trees.

Instagram user Sorrenteaux aka Ashley, a professional charcuterie board-maker, also created a festive “gingerbread-style” house in the style of a “Lincoln Log-esque cozy chateau”. It has a stack of toast and crackers surrounded by cucumbers cut into the shape of Christmas trees and snowflake-shaped cuts of soft cheese.

She used a sharp cheddar as the “glue”, joking: “Because cheese is pretty much the metaphorical glue of 2020, right?!”

Dozens of other have followed the trend of making a charcuterie chalet instead of a traditional gingerbread house (see some our favourites below). 

Others have adopted a coronavirus-theme in their Christmas decorations.

“When you dig out old Christmas decorations handmade by your grandmother 50 years ago and discover that she foretold the covid virus …” wrote Adam Moore on Twitter.

One social media user spotted coronavirus-esque decorations around their neighbourhood “Am I crazy, or did my neighbour put up......COVID decorations??” Wrote user Andy Lesko on Twitter.

Amusingly mimicking the tone of the year, those getting in the spirit of the season have made sure their decorations are “all covid safe” with Santa, snowmen and Christmas dogs in face masks. 

“This is the first time Coronavirus has given any pleasure,” said Martin Huyton after making a coronavirus Christmas card.

Maya Rose poked fun at the UK’s chief medical officer Chris Whitty, known for his catch phrase “next slide please” during coronavirus press conferences. “These are a big hit at the moment! Possibly the best thing to come out of 2020…” she said of her humorous themed card.

More extravagant lockdown creations from 2020, inspired by the pandemic, range from a giant laughing 750kg kookaburra bird, and an enormous Adidas shoebox made from wood that you can sit inside, to a backyard rollercoaster and a completely drivable car in the shape of a coronavirus blob.