So if Christmas is no mixing of households indoors

[RunBackwards]

What will you do?

We usually have the four of us (two young adult sons) my parents and my sister and her family (two teens). TBH as the children have got older it's been hard enough to make the day special/different to any other day but if it's just the four of us I can't see it being much different to today.

What do you have planned?

Will you comply with the no mixing of households. It's already in play here, although my sister is in another area where it's not. My parents are being very compliant, although my FB feed suggests most of people aren't.

Our parents live abroad and we never have Christmas together so for us nothing will change on the day itself but we normally meet friends for dinner in between the years and we will miss that obviously (Tier 2 here but even then we would be more then 6 anyway).

Christmas can be as special as you make it. I personally hate the idea of lots of people, even when we had Christmas with my parents/PIL I always found I can't really enjoy it/relax properly. It may be because my work is distasterously busy from mid-December until beginning of January and I enjoy the days having a peaceful couple of days.

DD is a single child and while she loves seeing her friends she loves having time to enjoy her presents and just relax.

My dad is terminally ill. I will be spending Christmas with him and my mum, my DH and kids and my sister and her partner. So three households mixed and 8 people in total. It is our last one all together so there is no way I will be following rules. If I can get on a flight with strangers, I can spend Christmas with my dying dad.

We'll be following whatever rules are in place at the time. We are expecting to have christmas at home, just our household (currently tier 3 area). DS is in school so unless they close the schools 2 weeks before christmas and we can all isolate for 2 weeks beforehand I wouldn't want to take the risk anyway. I can't imagine anything more horrible than passing covid on to any of our elderly parents :-(
We don't live close enough to meet up for a walk and MIL can't walk far anyway :-(

I'll be going to work, much the same as normal.

We normally meet family a weekend in The run up to Christmas which won't happen this year but mum and dad will come down for a lunch with us making 6 early December and I am guessing their will be a zoom get together for the rest of the family.

I will be seeing my family. My children are j school with 100's of others . They can stuff the rules.

We would normally have everyone to us. 8 in total - me, DH, DS (8), DD (3), my parents and my PiL.
This year will be different anyway, regardless of Covid, as my dad will be recovering from major heart surgery (fingers crossed all goes well) and won't be able to travel to us.
My parent live about a 2.5 hours drive from us so we plan to visit them weekend before Christmas. We'll spend Christmas day just the 4 of us at home (which we've never done before and I'm actually quite looking forward to it) and we will visit my PiL on Boxing day (they're about 30 minutes away).
If there is a travel ban in place, or households aren't permitted to mix etc, than we'll have to forgo visiting.

I will comply with whatever the rules are at the time.

christmas here with the children. will probably skelp over to their dad's at some point. may invite sil to sit in the garden for an hour or so with thermals and blankets if the weather is dry.

buggered if not.

Under normal circumstances we would have 11 adults and 4 kids at SIL's house for Christmas Day.
We have decided to split so there will be 6 adults & 1 child at our house and 5 adults & 3 kids at SIL's house.
We (DH, DD and I) will then visit SIL, BIL & their 3 kids on Boxing Day

But to be fair, I never have a big Christmas anyway so it's easier for me.

Last year I had 11 at my table. This year we will have 6. We have planned across the 3 days and we will all get together over those 3 days. We won’t break the rules.

It will just be me, my husband and my elderly parents (who are shielding but we care for). I am delighted not to have to do the big Xmas my sil often inflicts on us!

I will be spending Christmas with my parents irrespective of any rules. By then, DH and I won’t have seen them for months as we teach in universities, and we won’t be able to see them from January either for the same reason. Once this term ends, we’ll be able to self-isolate for 14 days so we will be no risk to them. Because of our jobs, Christmas is the only chance we’ll have to see them safely between September and March, even though they live fairly close to us.

It’s our year to go to my family and have a big Christmas with 12 - 14, which I’ve already accepted is highly unlikely to happen. If it’s no household mixing indoors as per the OPs question then I’d stay here with DH and the children, but I’d also have my dad to stay. He’d be on his own otherwise. Then I’d plan to meet the others half way somewhere on Boxing Day for a good walk. I’d consider breaking the rule of six for that, as I think ten or so people on a walk in the open air would be low enough risk to justify seeing the rest of the family around Christmas.

We're arranging a Boxing Day hunt.
The rules are so arbitrary. I have 3 adult heirs, son 1 lives with us, son 2 lives on his own and is working from home, and daughter is married with 2 young children. Normally we all meet up for a day around Christmas, no idea what we will do this year.

Will be ALOT of deaths come January with all this household mixing

It will be me on my own.
Kids at uni. Parents miles away and elderly.
H fucked off with another woman this year.
If I hadn't lost my job is have volunteered to work this year but I'm on a losing streak right now and havnt even got a job so tbh, I'm thinking I won't be feeling the Christmas cheer anyway.

My parents, the group we're meant to be protecting, are in tier 2 but are still absolute in their conviction that things will be relaxed for Christmas and that me, my husband, and my sisters family will all be coming to stay. Trying to explain that a house full of teachers and nurses and young children might not be a safe idea is falling on deaf ears.

Most likely will be us in tier1, me and my husband going over to my sisters house (a whole 10 houses down the road!) And this going down like a lead balloon with my mother!

Yup it's begining to look a lot like Christmas!

When I think of all the people who come back to work after a normal Christmas saying they/everyone had a lovely time but caught a cold/bug etc it concerns me a bit there seems to be so many plans to flout the restrictions for an environment known to spread bugs.

We would probably have had it in our support bubble with mum, but I won't have to worry too much this year as mum, who contracted covid in hospital 11 days ago, died last night. Mum had been in for 3 weeks for another condition, alone with no visitors allowed and just about to be discharged when she had her positive result. Mum seemed to be coping ok but deteriorated quicker than expected in the last 24hrs. By the time the dr decided she was coming to end of life and eventually lifted restrictions to let us in to see her, she was unresponsive so didn't know we had come to her. It has been a heartbreaking and brutal time.

I would happily spend one Christmas just a bit differently this year to not have one single family go through that.

It's possible that, in an attempt to curry favour with voters, rules will be temporarily relaxed around Christmas.

In the same way that the disease becomes less infectious when you are at work, or teaching classes of unruly youngsters.

"Essential purchases" may expand to include fairy lights, crackers, and Monopoly boards.

The next vote on school meal packs will also be less harsh.

we'll be spending it at home, just the 4 of us. If household mixing is allowed then I expect we'll have mil and fil over for some of the day

We will do xmas morning and lunch just me DH and the kids. DH will then walk to his parents to sit in their garden while my parents come to me - and me, my folks and my kids will have hot chocolate or mulled wine round a fire pit and listen to Christmas carols in the garden. Hoping it doesn’t rain!!

My in laws are on top of a mountain in Wales. Well and truely isolated. They are my biggest cheer team and I miss them so much. I haven't seen them since last Christmas now.

With the lack of crammed school halls watching nativities, and social events through December this year, there's probably less chance of killing granny compared to usual. There's always a risk of bumping off your loved ones with a nasty dose of flu or nororvirus, we just don't normally wring our hands about it.

I've not had the conversations yet, but I am prepared to see family. No massive extended family gatherings, from across the country, but it is morally wrong for the law to forbid children from having the right to a family life beyond their imediate household for a prolonged and indefinite period.

CovidNightmare I'm so sorry to hear about your mum