Everything Thanksgiving: Get all our Thanksgiving recipes, how-tos and more !

Whether your Thanksgiving traditions include gathering around the table with relatives from near and far or tucking into a multicourse meal at a nice restaurant, things will look different this year.

This is not the year to have a traditional Thanksgiving dinner, said Pamina Gorbach, an epidemiologist and professor at the University of California, Los Angeles. We dont want big family dinners to turn into superspreader events.

COVID-19 is spread person-to-person through small particles or respiratory droplets that are produced when you cough, sneeze or even breathe. That means hugging your favorite aunt, having a raucous political debate over pumpkin pie or just breathing the same air as other dinner guests even if no one is showing symptoms could transmit the virus.

Although there is no evidence that the virus has been transmitted via food or its packaging, studies do show that the coronavirus can live on surfaces for up to three days. It can also linger up to three hours in the air, according to research published in the New England Journal of Medicine.