It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas — albeit, a virtual one.

As cases of COVID-19 rise across the nation, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says the safest way to celebrate the upcoming holidays is to celebrate at home with people who live in the same household, as gatherings with family and friends who live in separate households can increase the chances of getting COVID-19 or the flu.

Virtual celebrations are much safer, though for those who still plan on having outside members of the household visit this year, the CDC outlined ways for safer holiday get-togethers.

A wide variety of factors can have an effect on the safety of holiday celebrations including community levels of COVID-19, exposure during travel, location of the celebration (indoor vs outdoor), duration of the gathering and number of people. Additional factors to think about are whether potential guests have been taking precautions prior to the gathering, as well as if they will take the same precautions during.

The CDC recommends those thinking of hosting a small gathering to consider the following:

-Consider whether it is safe to hold or attend a gathering on the proposed date. Check the COVID-19 infection rates in areas where attendees live on state, local, territorial or tribal health department websites or on CDC’s COVID Data Tracker County View.

-Limit the number of attendees as much as possible to allow proper social distancing with people from different households. Guests should avoid contact such as handshakes and hugs with those not from their household.

-Host gatherings outside as much as possible. If hosted indoors, require guests to wear masks when not eating or drinking.

-Avoid gatherings in crowded/poorly ventilated spaces with those not in your household.

-If feasible, increase ventilation by opening windows and doors or by placing central air and heating on continuous circulation.

-If hosting in an outside tent, make sure guests are still seated with social distancing in mind. If one must put up the tent sidewalls due to weather, consider leaving one or more sides open or rolling up the bottom 12 inches of each sidewall to enhance ventilation.

-Keep music levels down so people don’t have to speak loudly or shout to be heard.

-Encourage regular hand washing and provide hand sanitizer.

-Inform your guests ahead of time about the precautions that are required and will be taken at the gathering.

-Provide extra masks and hand sanitizer for guests and stock bathrooms with single use towels.

-Limit contact with commonly touched surfaces or shared items (i.e.- serving utensils).

Clean and disinfect commonly touched surfaces in between use when feasible.

-Provide touchless garbage cans if available. Use gloves when removing garbage bags or handling/disposing trash.

-Ask guests to avoid contact with people outside of their households for 14 days before the gathering.

-Do not let pets interact with people outside the household.

As for food, it’s recommended that guests only bring food and drink to be consumed by members of their own household. When preparing food for the gathering, make sure to wear a mask and have only one person handle the serving utensils to dish out the food. Consider providing single-use packets of condiments or designate one person to serve shareable items. For non-single use utensils and dishes, make sure to wash in hot, soapy water immediately following the gathering.