Are you intending to see your family this Christmas come what may, or if there are restrictions will you abide by them ?

and..it's not about 'abiding by' restrictions - it's all about being sensible and staying safe.

Still, the vast majority of the (idiotic) British public will risk their lives (and those of others) for a couple of days of 'Christmas cheer' won't they?

They'll throw caution to the wind and ruin all the benefits of months of isolation!

Confided, not concluded.

I always find the fuss and palaver about Christmas intensely irritating but this year even more so.I bumped into an acquaintance the other day, someone I rather admire, I was delighted when she concluded to me that she hates Christmas !!

JenniferEccles, I very much expect the rules to be relaxed for Christmas. The government really don't want a situation where widespread civil disobedience is very obvious.

I also expect an escalation in infections following the festivities and a spike in deaths at the end of January, unfortunately.

It will be like a licence to kill Granny and Grandpa!

Good on you Witzend! Someone with a bit of initiative. We can be both sensible and sensitive.

No idea yet about Christmas. But if seeing the family will still be strictly verboten, I suppose we’ll abide by it.?

One thing I’ll be doing shortly before this lockdown is over, though, is making a trip to dd’s house, an hour and a half’s drive away, to drop off the huge Advent calendar I made last year for Gdcs, ditto a Nativity set I made the year before. Gdcs have already been asking about them - they’re in our loft, since we have rather more storage space.

Unless I really need a wee, I will literally be just dropping them off, though, and I’ll go at a time when elder Gdcs will be at school, so no need to resist hugs - also so that I won’t be driving back in the dark/rush hour.

So that’ll be Monday 30th November, leaving around 11 am - in case anyone wants to dob me in. ?

We have always had Christmas Day with son and family, it would be 6 of us, but even if it’s allowed, I really don’t want to, if I’m honest.
I have been agonising over this too Calendargirl and am slowly devising a compromise. If the schools break up on December 17th that gives a full week before Christmas itself. If the children remain at home during that week and if the parents do not work, then could we possibly be in a pretty safe situation? It will take careful planning but I am willing to give it a try.

It doesn't matter if someone disagrees with the science the government is following. What matters is that we are all in this together and following the guidance should be what we all do.
What makes some people believe they're so special that they can ignore the rules? The list of politicians/spads who ignored the rules only confirms they are selfish idiots with an over inflated sense of their own importance and entitlement.
I love the Christmas holiday, enjoy cooking if its our year to entertain the extended family. I love Boxing Day, with a long walk with family/friends followed by eating yet more goodies.
I'm resigned to this year being unlike any previous year. I will cook good food, eat too much of it and enjoy walking the dog

Chewbacca - great news , enjoy yourselves

We have adhered to the rules so far and Christmas won’t be any different.

We have octogenarian family members and a relative with SEN and diabetes in a care home to protect .
It will be very sad not to be able to see them but they mean more to us than a big roast dinner .

Unless things alter drastically, I think DH and I will spend it on our own. We have always had Christmas Day with son and family, it would be 6 of us, but even if it’s allowed, I really don’t want to, if I’m honest.
They are all out at work and school, mixing with many others, and rates have risen a lot in our area, they have been consistently low until recently.
We’ve seen very little of them the last 8 months, so another day won’t matter.
Haven’t seen DD and family in Australia for 3 years, and not shared Christmas with them for 18 years, so cannot see why people get so worked up about it all frankly.

We will not go to see family. I will not decorate the house because it will be devoid of GS and their family. We will still cook a small Christmas meal. Reading my comment, I sound depressed, but rather feel a sense of acceptance and adaptability. Somehow, I find that empowering.

*MayBee70, in some areas, the NHS is undoubtedly under strain, but in other areas they are not, because the incidence of COVID is much lower than it is in Northumberland.

In my neck of the woods the incidence of COVID is half the rate it is in Northumberland and well below the national average and there have been no deaths from the disease for months. There are many other areas in the south of the country that are similar.

But just as you cannot generalise for the country from my experience, so one cannot generalise for the country from areas where the incidence of COVID is high.

In some areas the NHS is undoubtedly under a lot of pressure, but in other areas it is not.

I will follow the rules as I have done since the first lockdown. That might mean me spending the Christmas period on my own which I don't want to think about.

Nothing I can add really.

The news in Northumberland tonight asked people to not go to A&E unless it was absolutely necessary. The hospitals are obviously struggling so regardless of what the statistics are saying the NHS is at breaking point and something needed to be done.

GrannyRose15 I wouldn't say the pandemic is effectively over, I think that is a long way ahead. But, overall figures have started to slow down and in some areas decreased well ahead of lockdown or any lockdown effect.

Unfortunately, good or bad, it is very hard to tell, when you find the government has consistently lied to us about the figures for so long.

MawB2

There is a reason why such a high% of the population go down with colds and flu in January.
Stop and think why that is.
Then apply the same principle to the transmission of Covid19.
QED

I have to agree Maw.

M0nica

biba70 After last weekends deliberately misleading government approved presentation purporting to make the situation far worse than it really is, I no longer have any trust at all in government statistics on COVIDl. Both the parliamentary committee early this week and the Office for Statistics has criticised them for publishing deliberately misleading figures.

There are other equally qualified and knowledgeable statisticians and doctors who have been sceptical of government figures from the start and whose own forecasts have proved more accurate. I prefer to listen to them. One is at Oxford the other at Cambridge.

Absolutely agree. The government has been saying all along that they are "following the science" but this simply is not true. Other scientists disagree with Ferguson, Whitty, Valence and co. and are providing much more evidence for their stance. The pandemic is effectively over but SAGE won't let this nightmare end.

Sorry.I think my answer above relates to the wrong post of mine on this thread.

here is the correct answer
Casdon Whether last weekend's statistics are correct or not has absolutely no bearing on the fact that many people have had COVID and many have died. I am not a COVID denier. I am well aware that many people have died from this very nasty disease or been, and have remained very very ill.

But we know, because the Office of Statistics said so, as did a Parliamentary committe questioning Whitty and Vallance, who themselves finally admitted that the statistics they showed in last weeks presentation were wrong and that the number of deaths forecast was grossly exagerated. Their forecasts showed a daily death rate of a thousand a day by the end of October when the actual number of deaths on that 30th October was around 300. Their forecasts have been alarmist from day 1 and I have assumed for a long time not accurate either

There are other statisticians as eminent as them publishing statistics on COVID, which are far closer to what is actually happening and who are far happier to explain their statistics and how they derived them than are Whitty and his team. Why the government has chosen not to take their figures into account I have no idea.

I have studied statistics and done forcasting, although not in the medical field, but I recognise duff statistics (or should I say deliberately lying misleading statistics) when I see them and I now no longer trust the statistics the government statisticians are producing.

Doubting the statistics has got absolutely nothing to do with questioning whether people are having COVID or how ill many of them are. As I said I am neither a COVID denier nor a sceptic. But I do want to see statistics that are accurate and to know that they are truthful and currently I do not think the official government statistics are either.

I am just grateful that I have a lovely husband to share Christmas. We have already told our family to crack on with Christmas without us. The virus won’t have gone and none of us want to risk the health of the rest. We will have a few good family get togethers outdoors in the summer, even if we have to put the Christmas tree in the garden in July.
There’ll be games on zoom and we’ll be able to see them all on screen.
I hope too that I remember to phone and chat to friends who’ll be alone.

I’ve spent the guts of a year following the rules , I’d be an idiot to break the rules at Christmas. I want to see my family - all of them - I don’t want any missing due to having died from COVID.

In what way am I burying my head in the sand? I have not said i will break any rules. I haven't so far. I am merely saying I will not make any decisions about what I will do over Christmas until I know what the rules are.

I also said I would do nothing that would put anyone at risk. So what am I doing that is putting my head in the sand?

It's looking like it will be just the two of us for Christmas, which is disappointing, but I know it could be worse.

We've already had our Ruby Wedding celebration cancelled, and I'd be very surprised if we can see our children or my mother for Christmas. We are looking at having some sort of board game session over Zoom, as we usually play games after we've eaten. This will involve a certain amount of organisation, but should be doable if we find a game that doesn't rely on a shared set of cards - my daughter loves Cleudo, but obviously that wouldn't work .

We all live in different areas, so my main hope is that any restrictions are nationwide, so that there are no decisions to be made if one set can visit and another is locked down.

petra

I wonder if
Niel Ferguson
Dominic Cummings
Dr Catherine Calderwood
Robert Jenrick
Stephen Kinnock
Margaret Ferrier
Will be meeting all of their family this Xmas?
You bet they will. They obviously didn't believe the science, did the ?

As my Mum would have said “if so and so jumped off a cliff, would you do the same?”

MOnica you are misled. I wish you were able to visit any one of the vast number of general hospitals in the U.K. and see for yourself the people of your age and younger suffering from Covid, and also those people who were originally admitted for other reasons but have been infected, not to mention those people who can’t be admitted because there isn’t room for them. You are burying your head in the sand.

Chewbacca