Pandemic doesn’t keep some from traveling to be with loved ones for Christmas

Taking to the skies or hitting the road, people were willing to travel far and wide to be with family this Christmas.

Katie Dillon and her fiancé were two of them.

“With the travel restrictions, he can’t fly home to Sweden, and I can’t fly home to Canada, and so we didn’t want to be alone for Christmas, so we decided to make the trip,” Dillon said.

The couple made the 11 and a half hour trip from Greensboro, North Carolina to be with extended family for a socially distant Christmas celebration.

“We wanted the isolation of being in our own car and the safety of that because I know, being in an airplane, you’re sharing the air space. Even to wear a mask, it’s just not worth the risk for us,” Dillon said.

Gary Chase and his family took the risk, flying in from Boston.

“That’s the part I’m most nervous about, you know, but people kept their masks on … I’ll be glad when we’re home and we’re safe,” Chase said.

He wasn’t the only one taking a risk this Christmas. The TSA reports that more than 6 million people passed through security this past week, a record high since the pandemic began.

“Nothing was going to keep me from being able to spend time with them,” said Thelma Moesker of Ontario.

Travelers who spoke with WINK News are grateful to have the opportunity to be with family members this holiday season. They want to have some sense of normalcy in renewing family traditions in what has been a year far from normal.