How Vegreville Residents Plan to Celebrate Christmas

How Vegreville Residents Plan to Celebrate Christmas

Rosanne Fortier - News Correspondent

Talk of the Town

The COVID-19 pandemic might dampen how some people celebrate Christmas this year.

Steve Kereliuk said he won’t be putting up his annual dazzling Christmas decorations on his house this year but this is more due to the fact he is 90-years-old and it is hard for him to get up on ladders than it is due to COVID-19.

“As far as visiting with my family goes, we have no plans yet because of COVID-I9. We might get together as an immediate family but this depends on how the COVID-19 situation goes. Otherwise, I usually give money to my family for gifts. I am scared to go shopping because of the virus. But I do shop for groceries locally. I always did. I have never bought groceries out of town and I almost always bought everything locally. I used to buy everything locally for Christmas before. I feel it is important to shop local because the way a community works is when I was in business, I depended on the people to bring money into my business. Then I felt it was just right for me to go and shop at their businesses. It is all local people who support the organizations and clubs in town. You never get someone out of town doing that. Then again, people think they save money by going to Edmonton to shop yet when they count the gas it costs to go to Edmonton; they spend $25 on gas to save $10 on something,” Kereliuk said.

Darlene Topolnitsky said she plans to have Christmas this year with her immediate family and she does shop local. “I feel it is important to keep our money local. We will be decorating my house as a family. I feel it is especially important for family to be together this year as depression has shown up in my family. We need to show support for those family members. Families need to be together more than ever this year. This Christmas will be different as my extended family will not be able to come. We will be in contact by phone,” Topolnitsky said.