“It’s important to say to all children in the country that we regard Santa Claus’s travels as essential travel for essential purposes and therefore he is exempt from the need to self-quarantine for 14 days and should be able to come in and out of Irish airspace and indeed in and out of Irish homes without having to restrict his movement,” Minister of Foreign Affairs Simon Coveney recently declared on the floor of Irish parliament.

Important message for children of #Ireland – #Santa is coming & will be exempt from #Covid restrictions on International Travel. However children should be aware that social distancing guidelines should apply to Santa. pic.twitter.com/AT7LTMKFFt

— Simon Coveney (@simoncoveney) November 26, 2020

Christmas must go on!  If Santa can do it, so can we.  In the face of Covid quarantines, stay at home orders, and mandated mask-wearing, finding your Christmas spirit might be a challenge.  But, let’s do it. How lucky are we that while picking up our Kris Kinds gift on campus Wednesday. We were welcomed by a Mayfield staff member faculty dressed like Santa, had beautifully wrapped gifts placed lovingly in our car trunks, and waved with glee as we headed down the hill past a dancing snowman. Even though Covid-19 restrictions impacted travel plans to see loved ones this year,  let’s make a conscious decision to enjoy this season, come what may. Bake Christmas cookies, make pickles or crafts with friends and snuggle up to watch Christmas movies — over Zoom. Spend time with family: decorate gingerbread houses and wrap gifts with your siblings, and argue with little brothers over whose turn it is to light the tree or Menorah. Facetime with distant family on Christmas Eve, leave out cookies for Santa and carrots for his reindeer, as we await Santa’s arrival on Christmas Eve just like every other year.  All of these things won’t be “normal” but they can be consistent with all of our past holiday seasons and still make us smile and bring us joy.

In our final edition of the Mayfield Crier for 2020, the editors would like to thank everyone inside and outside of the Mayfield community for your tremendous support these last few months. Our new online platform has received critical acclaims from faculty, staff, parents, and journalism associations. Without the tremendous support of the Mayfield community, we know that The Crier would not be the strong journalism publication as it has become today. We have done our very best to bring you the top stories of 2020 surrounding the election, the pandemic, current social justice issues, and you, our beloved Mayfield community. Whether this is your first time on our website or your tenth time, we appreciate your support and look forward to continuing to bring you the news of 2021. Happy holidays from all of us at the Crier!

Finally, we would like to proudly introduce our art team. These are a talented group of Mayfield students ranging from painters to digital artists, to photographers that have been recruited to design the art for our stories on the website. Look out for their bios coming soon to the website.

Check out the video below to watch our December 2020 Elf Yourself video starring some of our favorite teachers.