Are you planning on changing your Christmas plans ?

[Lardlizard]

By keeping to six only ?

No. There will be 7 as usual at my Christmas dinner table.

I've talked to my dses about this, and things have got more complicated. At least one of the dses has nowhere else to go at Christmas - he lives with his girlfriend, but her parents have already arranged to have Christmas with her sibling and their family, so she and my ds would end up having Christmas on their own.

And thinking about it - another one is house sharing with his girlfriend, so they do count as one household, but he's a university student, and under normal circumstances, he'd be home for Christmas, then see her for partying at New Year. So he really doesn't have anywhere else to go.

If the rules don't change, basically we are going to have to choose just one of our sons to come for Christmas - and I do NOT relish doing that!

Yes as both df and dfil are shielding / vulnerable I will be hosting two Christmas days this year. Maybe df’s last so I don’t mind the extra work. Hardly ideal but I can’t see them changing how they feel before then.

No. This year has been a pile of sh** and I look forward to Christmas every year - we don't even get to spend the whole day as a family due to DHs job so certainly not changing plans to see my family.

We're not in the UK, we don't have that rule here, but we're only 4 for Christmas (my parents, DH and me)

Not yet made plans but if my close family get together we will be aprox 9 /10 which includes 2 children , that's fine with me .
Would be for a few hours not the whole day , as no proof the 6 rule is the right thing scientifically , plus a total lack of trust in government we will decide for ourselves.
We are all educated , fairly intelligent people , none of us will be mixing in large groups or going wild etc , but we will not be told what to do on christmas day by a bunch of incompetents.

The law that has been passed contains an exemption for protests, so presumavly people can host a Christmas Day protest against the restrictions with their family group.

Do you really think that anyone is going to come on here and admit that they won't be sticking to 'The Rules' at Christmas time? Don't you know by now that ALL Mumsnetters obey the letter of the law?

I go to my parents house with my family of 3, followed by brothers and their families. There is usually one of our bachelor uncles who will be there too. We will be continuing

It will just be the DP and I this year. We'd normally return to the UK to visit family for Christmas but we wont be this year. Dont fancy getting on a plane, the Covid situation is much worse in the UK than where we are, and we dont want to have to quarantine on the way back.

Probably be 7 of us for Christmas, just going to ignore the 6 thing if it's still in place.

I'm assuming we'll have to. I won't want to be mixing with people indoors if the numbers are high.

So Xmas as normal for the majority. Covid will have a whale of a time as the uninvited guest in a lot of homes.

There really isn't much hopen of controlling this, is there?

I usually stay home Christmas Day with my two but visit family Christmas Eve and have no intention of changing plans.

@ALongHardWinter

Do you really think that anyone is going to come on here and admit that they won't be sticking to 'The Rules' at Christmas time? Don't you know by now that ALL Mumsnetters obey the letter of the law?

Loads of people have said they won’t stick to the rules (Depending what the rules are and circumstances)

@Jeremyironseverything

So Xmas as normal for the majority. Covid will have a whale of a time as the uninvited guest in a lot of homes.

There really isn't much hopen of controlling this, is there?

I know. I’m wondering what sort of future our children have when so many are prepared to put their own wants before the health of society. January and February will be horrendous unless the government say households only for the festive break. No mixing at all.

We are 5 for Christmas, so that part will not change. For NYE, we normally go to Spain to see my family and that is the part that would most probably change.

We won't be making Christmas plans until very late on because of the likelihood we would have to change them. When we do make plans, we won't be planning anything which can't easily be changed/cancelled.

Won't be thinking about it until nearer the time, much could have changed by then so it's pointless planning anything. Depends on how the virus behaves as the weather gets colder and people are inside more.

We are a family of five and will be going out to a restaurant for Christmas Dinner as usual, assuming they remain open. They have taken our booking for now anyway.

There are family setups though where the rule of six just won't work. In many cases it would only go over by one, two or three and in those cases I really would just ignore the rule.

It’s the limit on the number of households that is the main issue for us. If the rules stay the same, I don’t see any way round things.

We have three dses - one living with his girlfriend, both wfh, one lives on his own, works as a teacher, has a girlfriend, and one at university, flat sharing with his girlfriend - so three households.

Previous Christmases, ds2 didn’t have a girlfriend, and the other two girlfriends went to their own families, so we had five of us here - but that won’t work this year, because it would still be four households.

So which son gets to come?

Ds1 - if he can’t come, he and his gf would end up on their own for Christmas, because she can’t go to her family, under current rules.

Ds2 - lives on his own, might be able to go to his girlfriend’s family, but if he can’t, he’d be alone in his flat on Christmas Day.

Ds3 - if he can’t come he ends up either on his own in his flat (if his girlfriend goes to her parents) or they are on their own in the flat.

I can’t see an answer that doesn’t leave some of them feeling excluded - unless they all bring shotguns and I call it a grouse shooting party.

I'm honestly trying not to make any plans until as late as possible, as at the moment feel it's impossible to predict the rules and the situation with regard to number of cases. We have a small extended family but a few vulnerable members, which we'll have to take into account.