Christmas break?

Even if the rules are relaxed over the Christmas period, we will continue to be careful.

We will hopefully visit AC in their gardens (weather permitting) for gift exchanges, and zoom overseas AC.

The decorations are going up early inside and out, although the real tree will not be here until 15th Dec.

The virus has no idea what the date is!!!

An awful lot of people are already doing what they want, Christmas will be no different for them but for the government to sanction it is madness. Christmas is just a big meal, chance for some alcohol to be consumed with family members some of whom others can't stand, all cam be done any time of the year. Given the empty churches there is vety few who actually celebrate the meaning of Christmas. For the none believers who celebrate the winter solstice that takes place before the 25th.

Shops and pubs need to open in December or face bankruptcy.
Those of us facing only disappointment and inconvenience need not be too quick to pour cold water on the hopes of others.
Carrots about being sensible and considerate may be more effective than sticks and prohibitions. And those unlikely to be sensible and considerate are the very ones likely to ignore any new rules.

We will not have our usual large Christmas get together whatever the rules are - the virus will still be there. I read somewhere a public health expert saying that more people will die from the virus if there is a let up on regulations at Christmas. We have the wonderful prospect of a vaccine - next Christmas should be fine and safe for us all to meet again.

A compromise. Would it work if we asked any visiting relatives to isolate for a week beforehand..? A student I know is doing this before she returns home to parents.

Who wants a covid christmas? That's what we will get if people chase all over the country for a few days. Yes its very sad for families not to be together but the reason is a good one and it is in everyone's interests.

NO NO NO. Just be thankful for any time you can spend with family. Does it really matter what the date is. I think not...any family time is precious

Well.... if the virus agrees to go into lockdown for the specified 5 days, I'll consider partying.

Winterwhite, “carrots about being sensible” haven’t worked so far. We wouldn’t be in the mess we are if people had been being sensible. I very much hope sufficient restrictions will remain in place up until just before Christmas to enable us to have at least a low-key family Christmas this year. We have not visited our daughter in France for nearly a year, and we obviously won’t see her this Christmas either, other than on FaceTime. We have left things open with our son, DIL, and little granddaughter. If the rates have gone down, and rules permit, we really want to spend the day with them. The GD has been going to nursery, but both parents have worked from home throughout, and we are retired, so not too much risk if we mix, but only if allowed. We will combine Christmas dinners if we can, but stay on our own if not. Son has asthma, as do I, and DH is 73, so we are all in the moderate risk category. There will be other Christmases. We only have one life.

Just been listening to someone on a phone-in who said, whatever the rules, she was going to see all her family for Christmas (11 including other halves) even though they live all over England and Scotland and she was at risk. She said she would rather die than miss Christmas with her family! She went on to add why should the Government stop her freedom. No thought of what her families 'freedom' would do to anyone else they met while travelling home or what pressure they would add to the NHS. Some people are just unbelievable.

I’ve been following the government shielding advice for most of this year due to a health condition. I have no intention of throwing all that away by having open house for 5 days over Christmas as if the virus will be off having its own holiday! I will have phone/video contact and we’ve planned an Australian style celebration later in the year virus permitting. I hope those intent on a usual Christmas will be just as keen on a January lockdown

The fact that we are on this website means we are older and maybe wiser. What would you have thought about all this when you were a child or a teenager? I know full well that at 17, I would have met the 19 year who would one day be my husband, wherever and whenever we could. That was our 'time' and we would have taken it. Can you honestly say you wouldn't have too?
I hear what you are saying and believe that you must all do what is right for you, but don't begrudge others who decide to meet their families.
We cannot go on like this as human beings, without social contact we wither and die. To live in fear is not to live at all.
How much damage has been done to our next generation already?
They have a right to live their lives as much as we did when we were their age.
No I don't think mass gatherings are a good plan, but there needs to be a sensible, individual approach. It is your choice to remain separate from others, but don't let the fear culture drive us mad.
My own Xmas is always close family and quiet, as we all work right up until the last minute anyway ( not me this year)
So this year will be much the same.
Just for the record, I do follow all the rules although live in a rural county. Mostly I'm fed up with being told endless lies by politicians and the press, and seeing how frightened everyone is.

Much as we’d like to there’s no sense in us mixing as a family over Christmas.

Covid will spread with or without the government’s blessing.

We’re planning a quiet day just the 2 of us and as the hosting usually falls to us we’re looking forward to a relaxing day.
People on their own can still ‘bubble’ but I do feel for those who will be on their own.

If we are allowed a Christmas break, our break is normally fairly quiet. We'd go to DD1 Christmas eve, (we, being myself, DH, DD2 and DGS, have our christmas meal, DH and I would come homed, then return next day to watch the children opening Xmas presents and polish off the Xmas dinner. After that just the 2 of us, probably bored out of our eyeballs!!

ajswan

Oh bah humbug, I do not believe the figures for deaths. I saw a graph somewhere that showed that the majority of deaths were aged over 80. Also if someone for example had terminal lung cancer and had tested positive just before they died, they would count as having died of Covid. This lockdown is unreasonable and unworkable. We have people still going to work and children still going to school. My bus was full of teenagers and hardly any of them wore masks. I also saw figures that more people are dying of other untreated conditions such as heart attacks and cancer. The economy is shot. I feel so sorry for small businesses. I think that people calling for more lockdowns especially over Christmas are totally selfish. If you are that worried then stay in and let the rest of us get on with a normal life. Oh and let’s not forget get the young who are suffering with mental health issues who are isolated from their friends etc.

As one whose beloved husband died in May of Covid-19, despite having taken all the precautions against it, I'm completely unable to resist telling you that I find your stance incredibly foolish and selfish. Covid is not going to go away over Christmas, and letting you as you put it "get on with a normal life" simply means allowing you to continue catching and spreading the virus and making a mockery of the sacrifices of others and the grief of those of us who have lost loved ones to this overwhelming disease. As for the young "suffering with mental health issues who are isolated from their friends etc." would you rather that they died or got "long covid" rather than wait a few more weeks and months and received psychiatric or psychologist help? Because however much you choose to not believe the figures for deaths I can assure you no government - even one as incompetent as the current Westminster one - would willingly decive their citizens whilst tanking the economy. For goodness sake wake up and get real.

Hoping to go to my DS & Family for Christmas Day as we are in a 'Bubble' if this is still allowed. Otherwise will just be me, my cat & my tortoise. No different from what life has been like since first Lockdown when all my activities had to stop. At least the radio (Planet Rock) keeps me slightly sane along with my cats help.

I have no plans to change how we do Christmas - basically dh, adult ds and I!!

(DS lives with us and has SN and is in the extremely vulnerable category, so we plan to keep him safe)

I don't think it's a good idea either are people willing to be seriously ill or even die for Christmas . It's absolute madness but there be so many idiots out there who will say it okay , the government said it's alright . Boris needs to grow a back bone and say I'm sorry but because of covid there's no mixing . He wouldn't be popular with alot of people but it's the right thing to do .

As wonderful as it would be Daisymae,i would rather stay away and keep all the family safe.
This covid nightmare will go on for ever if we start mingling again.

Since my dad died three years ago, my elderly mum (who lives 130 miles away) has struggled to cope alone, and made it clear long before Covid struck that Christmas was the one time of year when she absolutely could not bear to be alone.

To her, it really would feel like the end of the world if she was left home alone this year, especially as she knows that we have been as cautious as it is possible to be since all this began, meaning any risk of any of us catching or spreading the virus through being together would be absolutely minuscule!

I don't know what we will do, but I suspect that as well as being distraught, she may well never forgive us if we don't get her here for Christmas, no matter what the rules are.

ajswan

Oh bah humbug, I do not believe the figures for deaths. I saw a graph somewhere that showed that the majority of deaths were aged over 80. Also if someone for example had terminal lung cancer and had tested positive just before they died, they would count as having died of Covid. This lockdown is unreasonable and unworkable. We have people still going to work and children still going to school. My bus was full of teenagers and hardly any of them wore masks. I also saw figures that more people are dying of other untreated conditions such as heart attacks and cancer. The economy is shot. I feel so sorry for small businesses. I think that people calling for more lockdowns especially over Christmas are totally selfish. If you are that worried then stay in and let the rest of us get on with a normal life. Oh and let’s not forget get the young who are suffering with mental health issues who are isolated from their friends etc.

Unless one is religious I can't see why Christmas is so important that it must be celebrated by families getting together this year. Assuming that we do get a vaccine reasonably soon, why not have your celebration in the spring, or the summer?

If there is a break, people will be traveling the length and breadth of the country, taking their germs with them and covid too, if they have caught it. It is now known that young people are transmitters of the virus, even if they don't have it.

The number of deaths this year from covid is approaching 60,000, During WW2 the number of civilian deaths in England and Wales was 70,000. It's possible that the latter number will be exceeded by the end of the year. The number of deaths yesterday was 598.

If the numbers of daily deaths increases further then a greater burden will be placed on the NHS. The cost of this treatment will be phenomenal. Surely it behoves us all to stay in lockdown thereby trying to get the numbers down?

It's completely mad. Not only covid 19 wise but just think how much pollution will be avoided and accidents prevented if there is less travelling at the worst time of year. Much better for us all to be a bit calmer.

Personally I’d rather sacrifice Christmas for the chance to have much reduced infection rate in the Spring and then a better Summer

Oh please......this HAS to end sometime !!!! the whole situation is getting out of hand ...scaremongering tactics without a grain of truth just to keep the population under control ! I shall NOT be isolating and as soon as any travel ban ANYWHERE is lifted I am off ....my life my choice, AND before anyone jumps on me for being 'selfish; or irresponsible, well, all I can say is if I catch it, then SOMEONE else must have been !!! fait accompli

I despair of the selfishness of some humans!