Christmas easing of restrictions

I'm fortunate enough to be in a bubble and, if invited, I will celebrate Christmas the same way as usual. I will still take same precautions as now for next few months.

I'm really not sure what to think. At Christmas we usually have big and rare family get-togethers so I will miss it if it doesn't happen. If it's restricted to four households then I still won't be able to go as I'll be the 5th and an aunt and uncle will be 6th so I may have to stay at home.

It's not the end of the world. Instead I can spend a quiet day at home and do exactly as I please without the bother of travelling so that's the small compensation.

Diane318 - in absolute agreement with your sentiments. Can we not accept that we are living through an exceptional time and that delaying the usual Christmas festivities is a small price to pay in order to protect each other, known and unknown. As has been said so many times the virus does not discriminate - we are all vulnerable as FannyCornforth so rightly pointed out. I wouldn’t wish Covid on my worst enemy and even surviving can leave us with continuing health problems. Sadly, I too, know this.

Said it all in the verse I put in Christmas cards:

Christmas has always been a wonderful time of year,
A time to spend with family and those you hold most dear.
This Christmas may be different, but my feelings are not changed,
The timings may be altered, and the dates get rearranged.
I so look forward to seeing you, to gathering round the table,
If not on December 25th, then whenever we are able.
If we are not together, then we will somehow cope,
The message of Christmas, as always, is love and hope.

Sending my love to you, in hope of seeing you soon.

The important thing is keeping everyone safe - not the date!

I think many people will continue to be very careful. However with hundreds of thousands of students criss crossing the country to return home in early December, I wonder if there will be a huge rise in infection at Christmas, being three weeks later? You only have to look at what happened in university towns when they all went back to uni. Even if there isn't, because all the students, their parents and friends restrict contact, I do think there will be a huge rise in infection, hospital admissions and deaths during the third and fourth weeks in January, if everyone gets together at Christmas. Gosh, sorry it's such a miserable post. I just think an awful lot of people can't be trusted to do what's necessary. Is one day with a big feast and lots of alcohol worth it? My daughter works and lives abroad and I've done Christmas with tree, decorations, presents, food and alcohol at Easter, and in July, September and October over the years, with the rest of the family and friends, much merriment, happiness and laughter.

We are heading into lockdown end of this week again in N.Ireland for 2 weeks but I wish it was 4! Schools are still in although pupils are being sent home at present in our town to isolate. Nonsense, they won't isolate, they will run the streets. Over the weekend our news has shown queues of people in a busy Belfast now rushing for presents from non essential shops before they close and hardly any had masks on. They know what date Xmas Day is on so some could of been out before now shopping knowing this could of been on the cards. Sheer madness. It's hopefully for one Xmas, one year out of your life to maybe help save others. I'd say in 2/3 weeks the hospitals here will be over capacity because people queued for miles outside Primark.

I agree. I really don't think it's worth taking a chance. Much as I would love spend Christmas with my daughters and grandchildren, I would rather wait until I was sure that it was safe. I would rather wait until Easter and then have a family gathering then - hopefully by then things will be much safer.

So heartening to see these responses. Just how I feel. I know my daughter is worried that her brother and children will expect to come over ... and as so many have said all because ( for deeply commercial reasons) we can doesn’t mean we do so. As for the first to be vaccinated surely all those who work and reside in residential and nursing homes first so they can have visitors. It’s tragic how abandoned many of them must feel especially if they have dementia.

Sparklefizz

pen50 Better early death after a happy Christmas than longer life but no festivities.

I'm speechless.

Me too. Well almost. How can pen50 wish an early death on all her family? There is no thought of others who will/could become infected.

I'm horrified.

Just because ‘they’ say we can, doesn’t mean we should or will.
There are usually 10 or 12 of us from Christmas Eve to the 27th but it will be very different this year. Ages from 4 - 88. School teacher, school children, college pupil included. We have not decided on anything yet for this year but we certainly won’t all be together.

The second wave of deaths didn't start until the end of the second week of October.

As planned, we will spend Christmas at home as our families are in schools, either as students or Teachers so we feel it is too risky. However, 92 year old MiL is insisting that she spends Christmas with the four adults and five school age children!

We hope to move to Scotland any time now - so will not be in England for Christmas. We will be at least 700 miles away from our families and current friends. My siblings are not happy about our move, but it's for health reasons (mostly for my husband - but it was my idea to move). Obviously, we could not possibly mix with family or friends, as a result, though we have said that we will come back to Lincolnshire for a short break and to catch up with everyone, once a year, in the summertime! I agree that many people will mix without any restrictions or health and safety type precautions. Unwise, but a huge temptation for many.

Olive53

In October 2020, 43,265 people died
In October 2019 43,257 people died
In October 2018 41,466 people died

Where is the excess mortality?????

In October 2020, there were 43,265 deaths registered in England, 2,713 deaths more than the five-year average (2015 to 2019) for October; in Wales, there were 2,992 deaths registered, 258 deaths more than the five-year average for October.

The age-standardised mortality rate (ASMR) of deaths due to COVID-19 in October 2020 was 63.5 deaths per 100,000 people in England and 81.9 deaths per 100,000 people in Wales; the COVID-19 mortality rate significantly increased compared with the previous month in both England and Wales.

ONS
www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/deaths/bulletins/monthlymortalityanalysisenglandandwales/october2020

I am of the same mind as those who would prefer not to have to make an active decision re the Christmas week.
It was so much easier when it seemed unlikely that we could meet with relatives. Especially as our family is complicated with step families and the numbers are larger than I’m comfortable with...

I’d rather wait until we have the option of a vaccination which would protect us and our loved ones too.

FannyCornforth

Olive53

In October 2020, 43,265 people died
In October 2019 43,257 people died
In October 2018 41,466 people died

Where is the excess mortality?????

It's not just about dying though.
It's about being very, very ill and having to be hospitalised, and living with unknown consequences of the disease.
There is so much that is unknown about Covid, and I speak from personal experience.

.... and 500,000 with Long Covid.

I agree Hetty58. We have missed so much in 2020 that one missed Christmas will not be the end of the world. Far better to wait, now the vaccine is so close, and enjoy some family time next year. For those of us with even a low risk it just does not seem worth the gamble if it results in long term health problems - or worse.

pen50 my son in law’s sister had an ‘early death’ from coronavirus.....at 41 years old. Her youngest child is still only 5. She was a frontline NHS worker just doing her job and her death has left a shocked, disbelieving and desperate family who are struggling to take in the reality. I’m sure they’ll be having a ‘happy Christmas’ aren’t you?

We can all get together when the vaccine has given us suffieient safety to meet. I don't want to get together with family till then - if families do mix, some older people will get Covid as a result and some may die. Not worth the risk, to me, but we will all make our own decisions of course.

Olive53

In October 2020, 43,265 people died
In October 2019 43,257 people died
In October 2018 41,466 people died

Where is the excess mortality?????

It's not just about dying though.
It's about being very, very ill and having to be hospitalised, and living with unknown consequences of the disease.
There is so much that is unknown about Covid, and I speak from personal experience.

Every Christmas is someone's last we never know what is going to happen the following year .I would love to see family but just not worth the risk .Unfortunately there will be people doing a lot of mixing and then going shopping etc after putting us that won't be mixing at risk .

Five days of socialising - like taking a bottle of corona, removing the stopper and shaking it out into the air - the public transport system will be rife with it, as will the pubs. Yet, some elderly people may be on their last Christmas so what do we do (and I'm elderly). It would be nice to think that younger family members would take extra care not to mix socially other than what has been permitted so far, so that they can welcome their older parents or grandparents knowing that they've taken all reasonable steps to protect them. It's a balance based on each one of us making a sensible risk assessment, and including in that the risk to mental health as well as to physical health - and actually, mental health has a great effect on physical health anyway as stress remains in the body. I wonder if BJ will be more specific about travelling - will he say that people are still not able to sleep in somebody else's house - that should be the case in my opinion, so that people from a heavily infected area don't transport the virus to a lightly infected place.

Willow73 Vaccinate the young folk first! Only last night learned from a young friend 45 years old, her 16 year old son was planning to stay a weekend with 8 other friends in a friends house whilst the parents were away. Of course they would all then return to homes, some with older adults living with them. Yes, vaccinate the young so they can continue to act irresponsibly all for their own enjoyment. For me it's the vulnerable first.

We have no choice . Every day is a risk for us as we have teenage grandchildren living with us. (Although DH is extremely vulnerable the requirement is that they should still attend school).We are as careful as we can be and the schools are very careful too but we will carry on at Christmas as we are now just including the parents whom we see almost every day anyway(care bubble) Our local DS I am sure will not want to join us as they have been very careful before and since the birth of their fourth child in April.

Lessening restrictions just because it is Christmas and the New Year is utterly ridiculous.

If there had been a significant drop in the number of cases, it would still be risky.