Christmas - following the rules or not?

[BIWitched]

From what we know right now (and accepting that things may change in the next few weeks) if you're in tier 2 or 3 re you going to obey the rules about not mixing households indoors?

YANBU - I will be ignoring the rules
YABU - it's my civic duty to obey the rules

@Bluesheep8

Okay, but surely you can see that Christmas with your partner and kids is still pretty merry, and a much lesser sacrifice than suggesting that 20-something single people should spend Christmas alone in their house shares?

@littlegwynneth Yes, yes I can see that. I do get what you're saying. We have recently had a major bereavement in our family and in all honesty, if that family member's spouse was due to spend the first Christmas since his death alone, then I would be forced to think again. They are in tier 1 so therefore can go to other family in tier 1 but if that weren't the case then yes, I'd have to think again although I know that they are following the rules as closely as I am. But thank you for making me stop and think.

I'm so sorry for your loss I'm very glad you're able to make it work in a way that's comfortable for your family.

@GingerAndTheBiscuits

I wonder if the government will propose another national lockdown for the first two weeks in January? Would account for increased movement over Christmas and new year (which unless they start setting up roadblocks and turning people back is going to happen to some degree anyway) but minimise the spread by essentially enforcing 2 weeks of self-isolation for most (recognising key workers etc will still need to go to work).

They don't appear to want national lockdowns again because they dont want to fund it, but it wouldn't surprise me to see some kind of advice of temporary tier bump or something shortly after. My thinking is they're more likely to want to do this than be seen as being unable to prevent widespread rule flouting over Christmas.

@AllTheUsernamesAreAlreadyTaken

Not if they live in a houseshare, or house of multiple occupancy. The vast majority of my friends live in house shares with people they met online for the purpose of forming said houseshare. So they're not single households, but also not living with any friends or family.

@littlegwynneth thank you, that's very kind of you

Following the rules. So means I'm alone for Christmas (tier 3)

Following rules as I'm not a selfish prick who is meaning we are in the state we are :)

I'll be following the rules as I'm a key worker with vulnerable extended family.

@DdraigGoch

How many of those of you calling people "selfish" live alone? Pretty much all of the ones on this thread saying that they'll stick rigidly to the rules over Christmas have also mentioned a partner and possibly kids too.

Don't judge someone until you've walked a mile in their shoes. This pandemic has been fucking lonely. I'm not going to condone the 12-strong gatherings but if someone wants to let their single adult children have some company over Christmas, can you blame them?

I haven't called anyone selfish on this thread but I do think poorly of those who express an utterly cavalier attitude to the rules - the ones who are saying "I'll do as I like and no one can stop me". I live alone.

inews.co.uk/news/uk/christmas-cancelled-family-gatherings-boris-johnson-experts-735842?utm_source=%3Fito%3Dsocial%7Ctwitter%7Ctw_theipaper

I said I wouldn't not be following the rules - but this is provided none of us have symptoms, then we would. We should be ok as there will only be 6 of us, but if they change, we'll still go ahead. We are going to isolate beforehand for 8 days so we protect my mum who has a lung condition (she's in full agreement and wants us to come anyway).

I can’t see my parents anyway as my father is having cancer treatment and can see people for 2 weeks after each treatment. Christmas falls in the period so we will have to wait till after new year anyway. My MIL is in the vulnerable category too so can’t meet up with them and my DB and family live in Dubai. So planning on a Skype dinner with everyone

We live in wales and family live in england. We are staying home (secretly really happy tbh) as we don't want to travel across the country and risk my parents catching it or one of dh family members who has cancer. Also one of my dh colleagues is vunerable and I feel like it would be unfair to them if we decided to travel just cause we want to. I have seen family once since feb. It's me, dh and 2 kids. No family and only a few friends in the area but we survive. Parents have already sorted posting presents etc and we will facetime on xmas day.
Honestly looking forward to no spending 4 hrs in the car on xmas eve tbh.

If you're in Wales, I don't think you'd be allowed to travel anyway, would you?

I'm not social distancing with my mum and dad anyway, so it being christmas won't make any difference to us. There will be 7 of us. Yes I'm breaking the rules in a minor and specific way and I feel no guilt over that.

We will see the in laws separately and will social distance. There will be 6 of us in total there so following guidance.

Depends what the rules are by then! I’m not going to sit alone at home with two dc that’s for sure.

This is very likely to be my dads last Christmas so I will break the rules and spend it with him. He is housebound and lives for our visits. We visit his garden and talk through the window. But Christmas Day we will go and cook him a lovely meal and he can see his grandchildren.

@itsgettingcoldoutside that’s precisely why we will be breaking the rules. My grandad passed away from covid in April and we couldn’t visit him, it was heartbreaking. We also hadn’t been allowed to visit for 8 weeks prior to him falling ill when we normally visited every week. It’s taught us that life is short and you should spend what little time elderly people realistically have left with them. My grandad would def have preferred to die 2 months earlier than he did and have spent time with us right up to the end. Length of life is not necessarily better/more important than quality of life. Lots of people seem to not get this!

As it happens, we are all very low risk transmitters as there are 6 of us adults, no kids, we all work from home and get groceries delivered, so would be extremely unlikely to catch it from anywhere, or to pass it on to anyone if we caught it at Christmas.

The risks simply aren’t the same for everyone and it’s disingenuous to pretend they are. We won’t feel bad about breaking the rules as the reality is we don’t see anyone to catch it from or pass it on to!

I doubt I'll have much choice (live in Wales, parents in England) but if I could, I'd be seeing my parents. I want to make the most of Christmas - it only happens once a year, and as awful as it sounds I don't know how much longer it'll be possible to have Christmas as a family due to aging parents and kids growing up.

I'm not breaking the rules, it's one year out of our lives.

If we're still navigating this next Christmas you might get a different answer but that is highly dependent on the evolution of the pandemic: we now have 4 different strains on the go and we don't know where this is headed yet.

Well I guess we can now all see why the restrictions have needed to be put in place!

I will follow the rules.

@FelicisNox

I'm not breaking the rules, it's one year out of our lives.

If we're still navigating this next Christmas you might get a different answer but that is highly dependent on the evolution of the pandemic: we now have 4 different strains on the go and we don't know where this is headed yet.

For my Nan, who is 96, this could well be her last Christmas. She is not concerned about covid she would rather enjoy life.

For my daughter, who is nearly 4, this is the first Christmas she is actually excited about and knows what is going on. She has already missed out on seeing family for a huge chunk of her life.

Saying "it's just one Christmas" is disingenuous. It's one Christmas. It's also one Easter, one school disco, one school trip, one may bank holiday, one family holiday, one birthday, many friends birthday parties, one halloween, one bonfire night, one new years eve and day and every single day in between.

If it was miss one Christmas and everything will be fine, then I'm sure people would go along with it. But it's not one Christmas, its 9 months of restrictions and counting.

At the moment I am in zine 1 so rule of six applies. 5 in our household so will be having Xmas alone but dh and I will travel to my dd, sil and 2dgc one day after Xmas but before New Year. My sons will go their Dad's that day. Dh and I will take youngest child to go to in laws on 27th of December and 2 adult dc stay at home. All sticking to rule of six.

A childcare bubble does not allow for doing anything that would otherwise not be allowed I feel people have misinterpreted the rules .

I hope all those who are planning to flout the rules (excluding legitimate exemptions) remember that we're only going to get out of this when we ALL get out of it. No group or even the super healthy can remove themselves and carry on as normal. The longer it goes on the longer it goes on for all of us. Even if you're never touched by Covid directly, or suffer any indirect health or financial issues, your life will be curtailed for the length of the pandemic. I feel that the message we all have to be in it together sometimes gets lost. I used to get angry but feel more defeated now. Maybe I'm the mug abiding by the rules?