To wonder how many people truly want Christmas to be "saved"

[IrkedEssex]

I am no fan of lockdowns and would rather we were not locked down for Christmas. But I think it would be a crying shame if all the privations everyone has suffered are reduced in their efficacy due to a desire to "save" Christmas. Such a move might well involve stricter restrictions in the lead up or aftermath. I am also wondering how many people, in all honesty, absolutely love spending Christmas Day with family.

Most people I know find it at least as much duty as pleasure; traipsing half way across the country to crowd in with relatives, family arguments, restive children, huge expense yada yada yada. In my family it is the older generations who drive the togetherness aspect of it, but they then get the most tantrum-y and ill-tempered. Most people I know mainly love the lead up to Christmas with the fun and the parties and the decorations. Well, we can decorate to our hearts' content and there won't be fun and parties in December no matter which way you look at it. Gifts can be sent. So is it really worth fixating on Christmas togetherness? I'm totally prepared to be in the minority here; am genuinely interested in how others feel about this.

YABU - I and my family love to be together on Christmas Day and are desperate for it to be saved, even if it means stricter restrictions either side of the day itself.

YANBU - Christmas Day gatherings are mostly a hassle at the best of times and it is not worth prejudicing lockdown progress by lifting restrictions purely to save Christmas.

I don’t care if it’s saved or not. I’ll be visiting family even if it’s illegal. I don’t care anymore.

Oh, ok . I'd rather my terminally ill brother didn't die early, that's why we're staying away, but each to their own eh.....

I desperately want restrictions loosened at Christmas. I’m pregnant with my first baby and we want to be able to tell our families in person. We live about 200 miles from my DM and around 150 from PILs so can’t drop in easily.

Saying this, I don’t want to put other people at risk and know this is a priority.

Congratulations goose

Nice for you Racoonworld to be in that position. Some of us are scared of ending our relatives lives early, luckily you appear not to have that problem

I love the lights and it's nice to see kids excited but it's an exhausting to do list of chores, duty and then debt for adults, or more specifically, mums.
The idea that one commercialised day needs to be saved for the sake of our cultural psyche is a joke.
Christians will celebrate it no matter what, wherever they can. It doesn't need to be saved.
The govt are just worried we won't all be getting in as much debt as normal

We're a Christmas family. My late husband adored it, and my adult daughters do too. It's a special time for us and we have traditions and memories involving DH that make it all the more special.

I live alone so if the family couldn't gather it would be just awful.

I'm already worried because we are a family of teachers and nurses. The odds of all of us getting to Christmas Day without anyone needing to isolate are not great.

So yes, damn right I want our Christmas.

@tactum

Nice for you Racoonworld to be in that position. Some of us are scared of ending our relatives lives early, luckily you appear not to have that problem

How about those that are worried can stay away from relatives and those that aren’t can see them if they wish? Everyone can make their own choices as to what’s important to them. Covid isn’t the only thing that matters.

Because then everyone will make their own choices about everything and my brother's essential trip to hospital will put him in contact with someone who did their own risk assessment and thought they were fine. As would my once a week trip to the supermarket. As would the carers who look after my mum. As would everyone else....
No covid is not the only consideration in life. But I can tell you the fear of giving it to my brother is the ONLY thing keeping me away.
It's a no win situation all round

@tactum your right it is a no win situation. Everyone has their own views and priorities and people already are making their own choices. For me, I make the choice not to go into any shops, I get food delivered, I’m on mat leave so don’t work out of home. But I’m also choosing to see family as that’s what’s important to me. The virus will be with us for a long time, I’m not going to not see them for many more months, we all have to learn to live with it and that means taking the risks you feel comfortable with and letting others do the same.

I'd like to see my parents at some point but not in xmas day. We dont do that.
We used to always spend it with in laws but have wriggled out of that.
Happy to spend it just the 4 of us.

As I say - I think if I knew, for certain which ones of my adult dses (if any) can come home over Christmas, I could accept whatever restrictions there are, and just get on with things.

It’s the not knowing - and going through all the different scenarios in my head, and trying to work out what to do in all of them that is frying my brain and causing me stress.

If one or more of them can’t come, it will be the first Christmas ever we haven’t been together as a family, and that thought does upset me - but if that is what has to happen, I’ll post off parcels, and we’ll talk on the phone, and hopefully next Christmas will be better.

But I want to know as soon as possible, so I can get my head round it all, and make whatever arrangements need making.

From a selfish point of view I want to see my parents on Christmas day. Pre pandemic I would see them several times a week but we haven't seen them since the government introduced the rule of 6 and not hugged them since March. I really miss them. I also miss mum's cooking which is much better than mine. We also haven't been anywhere "fun" since March, just school, hospital and the supermarket to reduce the risk to me, ds and my mum who are all CV.

However I know it's probably going to be against the rules so I will suck it up and hope that we will be able to do nice things again soon.

In all honesty I think lots of people can use this as a great excuse not to spend time with relatives they don't like.

It's fine with me :)
Will be nice and quiet. Perfect!

Our Christmases don't have a set format. Often it might be the four of us at home on 25th December, but we catch us with various family households around the festive period because we all have more time for it.

Christmas with no family is just lockdown with tinsel and turkey, especially with no nativities, Christingle services parties etc in the build up.

This year family is more important than ever.

3rd option
I and my family love to be together on Christmas Day, but have accepted that to protect our loved ones we won't be together this year.

I said in another thread that when we have MIL we get her "waifs and strays" of her friends who have "nowhere else to go". Some of them have more tragic stories than others but they are just so difficult to spend the day with as they are all miserable and critical with it. MIL is in our support bubble but I shan't shed a year if the entourage aren't able to come. I've made it clear that we won't be breaking any rules over Christmas.

Before we moved abroad I hated Christmas. Stressful, financial pressure and tiring. Since we moved abroad (and live in a country that doesn't celebrate Christmas) we've had a much nicer time. We don't come home for Xmas - we either have a nice lunch out or go on holiday instead. We still have a tree and decorations, the kids know about Santa (although I think this might be the last year) and it's far less stressful. I love it being just us and not have to worry about who we are going to see etc

YANBU.

Does anyone else think all this media talk of "saving Christmas" sounds like the plot of a Pixar movie? I'd happily watch it, but I can't take it seriously.

We're having Christmas. 8 of us.
Christmas to me is about parties with friends and Christmas day with our adult dc. No chance of any partying but Christmas day is 100% happening. We're all in agreement as long as none of us are ill.
We're all at work with lots of people, out shopping with hundreds of people etc. I've always applied logic and common sense to evaluate situations not blind panic.

It was Diwali yesterday, which is every bit as important and family-oriented to a billion people globally as Christmas is to others. We couldn’t celebrate it in the way we would have wanted due to the current restrictions. We still managed to have a lovely day, though, by making the best of it. Christmas will be the same. You cannot just press pause in the middle of a pandemic for the sake of a single day that happens every year.

YANBU.... I am personally prepared to sacrifice my 2020 Christmas on 25th Dec with the hope that we can reduce the spread and in turn allow people who may subsequently catch covid in the coming months be able to celebrate next year. It's as simple as that.... when the numbers reduce we can have our big Turkey dinner and family gatherings when it's safe.... I have experienced the early death of people from covid who would have lived full and productive lives for the next 30+ years. So yes I'll celebrate in March or April and I'll raise a 🥂 of gratitude to have made it through.

Really not fussed. We'll be just the two of us and the dog and that's fine. I might get the tree out of the loft, but might not. No big pressies and a simple meal at lunch time. Perfect.

My friend (huge extended family) is actually heaving a sigh of relief and using it as an excuse not to invite Aunty Maud, Uncle Jim and the tedious cousins ... there's an upside to everything apparently.

Quietly relieved. Every year it's a massive expense and involves at least 6 weeks of planning and a major road trip, just when we are most tired and in need of a rest.