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

It’s not being a cock to want to see your loved ones at Christmas when you’ve been working all through a pandemic 🙄

Well I’ve been working in school all through the pandemic. Our DD lives in a share house in a Tier 2 area. We live in a tier two area. She won’t be coming home for Christmas as neither of us will break the rules. We haven’t seen FIL &MIL since February as they are both vulnerable and with me working in school with no distancing or masks we all figure it’s risky so telephone conversations and video calls is what it will have to be.

That way we stand a better chance of all being fit and we’ll to get together for many future Christmases.

@clarehhh

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

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/local-covid-alert-levels-what-you-need-to-know

Local COVID alert level: very high
This is for areas with a very high level of infections and where tighter restrictions are in place. The restrictions placed on areas with a very high level of infections can vary, and are based on discussions between central and local government. You should therefore check the specific rules in your areaa_.
At a minimum, this means:
• you must not socialise with anybody you do not live with or have formed a support bubble with, in any indoor setting or in any private garden or at most outdoor hospitality venues and ticketed events

Yes you can. This is from the gov website.

I’m Jewish and all of our festivals this year had to take place under lockdown (Passover in April) or difficult restrictions (Jewish New Year in September), we couldn’t see our families and it was really upsetting. So I don’t know why you think Christmas gives you the right to pretend Coronavirus doesn’t exist. That’s so selfish. My sister is suffering badly with long covid and I wouldn’t wish it on my worst enemy. Why can’t you just try and make the best of it and look forward to a better one next year? Instead of putting people at risk? What would Jesus do??!!

@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 was assuming people living alone are allowed to be in a "bubble" with another household. I apologise if I've got it wrong x

I'll obey the rules but not because it's my civic duty. I'm very "whatever" about Christmas so I'm happy to spend it with friends or not. I don't spend it with family anyway, so as long as I make a nice meal, watch a decent film or two or binge a decent series, have a good book to escape into and some nice decorations and pretty lights around me, I'm happy. It's just one day.

Now I can go to the canaries without having to isolate when I return has completely changed my Christmas plans. Sunshine!!

I'm quite looking forward to Christmas this year. it's going to be a time to try out new traditions and things to do.

One thing is I will be meeting my sister and we will go for a nice long walk together and then swap presents when we get back to our cars . We live about 100 miles apart, and we usually meet up for a meal to do this. A 5 mile walk on a cold day sounds fun to me. It might actually become a new tradition.

We'll all (main family) go for a walk round the village at night to look at the Christmas lights, like I used to do when I was little. This will replace the cinema or panto.

We might well cook biscuits/sweets and leave them on neighbours' doorsteps as a surprise. And then melt marshmallows on the fire.

And we'll decorate the outside of the house more than the feeble lights we usually use!

Christmas is always just my son and I, so the rules don't make any difference to us really (although I'm gutted that the panto we go to every year is cancelled!).

BUT...if my parents or grandparents were still alive I can't imagine not seeing them at Christmas.

"Childcare bubbles are to be used to provide childcare only, and not for the purposes of different households mixing where they are otherwise not allowed to do so."

www.gov.uk/guidance/local-covid-alert-level-high#childcare

[quote Stephie321]"Childcare bubbles are to be used to provide childcare only, and not for the purposes of different households mixing where they are otherwise not allowed to do so."

www.gov.uk/guidance/local-covid-alert-level-high#childcare[/quote]
The grandparents will be providing childcare on Christmas Day while the parents are cooking/ tidying etc.

We are in the midst of a pandemic, period. Muslims had Eid celebration culled, Hindus won’t celebrate Diwali. Is Christmas any different?

We will be having one person (relative) come to our house but they help provide care and support to ds so are a regular visitor anyway- and not childcare because he is over 14.

Just do a Rishi and go to pizza express on xmas day and pass it off as a “business lunch” it’s beyond a joke really. I am following the rules but I’m getting pretty annoyed with the inconsistencies of it all. I’m in tier 2, my kids go to school in tier 1 And can no longer mix with friends in our home but can in school. I cannot meet my friend for coffee indoors but I could meet a colleague for a business lunch ....

[quote LittleGwyneth]@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.[/quote]
In many cases now the landlord fills the rooms themselves as a house of multiple occupancy. My son was in a house with 4 people he didn’t know or choose to live with. Some of them he never saw. But he had to share kitchen and bathroom. He just had a single room to himself.
No way should people like that be made to stay there over Xmas.

@AllTheUsernamesAreAlreadyTaken
If you need childcare to cook dinner or tidy up then you are a bad parent.

[quote Stephie321]@AllTheUsernamesAreAlreadyTaken
If you need childcare to cook dinner or tidy up then you are a bad parent.[/quote]
Do you want my personal details so you can inform social services?

I was assuming people living alone are allowed to be in a "bubble" with another household. I apologise if I've got it wrong x
@LindyLou2020 under the Welsh local lockdown rules you can only do so if that other household lives in the same county. Outside of work, I am only friends with two households in the county. One is bubbled with her partner, the other is shielding and in any case would have family and others further up the pecking order. Everyone else I know is at least in the next county or in most cases over the border in England. So the singleton exemption does not help me. Hopefully the local lockdown will have been lifted by then (we had bugger all cases in my county to start with) but knowing Drakeford's sadistic penchant for pointless restrictions I rather doubt it.

@DdraigGoch

I was assuming people living alone are allowed to be in a "bubble" with another household. I apologise if I've got it wrong x *@LindyLou2020* under the Welsh local lockdown rules you can only do so if that other household lives in the same county. Outside of work, I am only friends with two households in the county. One is bubbled with her partner, the other is shielding and in any case would have family and others further up the pecking order. Everyone else I know is at least in the next county or in most cases over the border in England. So the singleton exemption does not help me. Hopefully the local lockdown will have been lifted by then (we had bugger all cases in my county to start with) but knowing Drakeford's sadistic penchant for pointless restrictions I rather doubt it.

Oh I hope so too. Could you afford to splash out and make it little more special if you have to do it alone? A hotel in your area maybe?

@Ffsffsffsffsffs

Holy shit, is this for real?

There was uproar in my area when cases skyrocketed 2 weeks after eid when all posters commented on dick posts on social media.

Millions of folk already facing restrictions because 'we' can't do the right thing, begging for a firebreak lockdown, and you lot are prepared to fuck it all up for a Christian festival hardly anyone observes for religious reasons, just so you can see granny, eat way too much food and spend silly money on tat nobody either wants or needs. Fuck me.

Completely agree with you!!!

I’m pretty sure my tier 1 PIL will be staying with my tier 2 BIL and SIL.

Oh I hope so too. Could you afford to splash out and make it little more special if you have to do it alone? A hotel in your area maybe?
@AllTheUsernamesAreAlreadyTaken I have no intention of being alone over Christmas. I don't care if I have to disguise myself as a sack of coal and swim through the Dee to escape y Wardeiniaid Covid, I will be seeing my close family for Christmas.

Do people honestly think that if everyone obeyed the lockdown restrictions to the letter then this will all go away by Christmas/ Easter/ whenever and everything will go back to normal?

@DdraigGoch

Oh I hope so too. Could you afford to splash out and make it little more special if you have to do it alone? A hotel in your area maybe? *@AllTheUsernamesAreAlreadyTaken* I have no intention of being alone over Christmas. I don't care if I have to disguise myself as a sack of coal and swim through the Dee to escape y Wardeiniaid Covid, I will be seeing my close family for Christmas.

😂😂