Has anyone altered their 2020 Christmas plans already?

[PersonaNonGarter]

It is our turn to host my family. They are easy guests but are all coming from quite far away so here for minimum two night more likely 3-4 nights stay. At least six people plus maybe a couple more on Christmas Day.

We’ve dealt with this before by getting out of the house: Boxing Day theatre, cinema tickets at least once during stay, sales shopping and so on. Can’t see this all being back on. Board games only work for so long.

I am now feeling the stress of planning Christmas against a backdrop of lockdown and social distancing. Will I spend £££ and stress about it and they’ll cancel/be forced to stay away anyway.

Anyone else grappling with similar? Are you planning exactly the same Christmas as before?

Yes, we have OP. Firstly, DH, our two DC and I usually have festive family days out every weekend in December, including travelling by train to a market, visiting the theatre and a visit to Santa . Nothing has been advertised this year so I'm hoping local National Trust attractions will decorate/dress their properties so we can at least plan for walks there. We usually buy our Christmas tree from a local forest so hoping they'll open up again this year. For the last 10 years, we have hosted Christmas day. Usually this involves members from 6 households for lunch with a further 2 households joining us for a picky party tea. I'm not sure what we'll do. I'm happy for family members to visit us, but whether everyone is there at the same time, I don't know.

We have a big house booked at Ribby Hall for us and all the in laws. Will be so upset if after such a rubbish year we can't give DS a big family Christmas. However I think I will have a Plan B of just the three of us at home and will start shopping soon to make sure it is magical.

We had planned to get away at twixmas to do some walking. We were away last Christmas and enjoyed not hosting everyone for the whole period. But now post lockdown and not having seen our parents nearly enough we are both feeling that we want to be more family focused. However, it's hard to plan so we will probably just go with you're welcome here and play it by ear.

just hoping we have a lovely, snuggly 2 week old newborn (ideally!) and loads of M&S food
Ahh Maverick wishing you lovely squidgey newborn Christmas Snuggles .
My DS ( 20) was born less than three weeks before Christmas , DH and I were sleep deprived zombies with The Baby Who Never Slept .
We were too knackered to chew dinner or open presents ! But we did go for a ovely walk on the Boxing Day with Himself snoozing in his pram.

This year (DH, myself and two adult DC and the 2 cats who are known to be partial to some nice roasted chicen) will be a quiet one .

We dot know if our Christmas Market+ Designer Outlet trip will go ahead
We don't know if 2nd Wave Covid will sweep .
.

I’m waiting to see what will happen. We usually go to a pantomime and visit Santa on a steam train.
I think I’ll probably make more of an effort with the decorations in the house and find some Christmas crafts to do, if events are cancelled.

Once we are all healthy I can live with restrictions but missing out on Halloween or Christmas events is quite sad. These things are the stuff of life really and make family memories. Not seeing the same Santa we have visited for the last 12 years makes me very sad

@merrygoround51 I will also be gutted if we miss our visit to the same Santa we have seen for years. We normally buy the tickets the week the kids go back to school, so I guess they will make an announcement soon.

Op are there things you can do to make your house more special in case you stay in? For example spend money on a projector and popcorn machine to have a Christmas movie night? Some kind of elf trail in the garden? We’re going to miss panto this year but I’m hoping YouTube will be able to show one.

I’m sorry OP and anyone else who’s plans are up in the air. I’d be too worried to book lots of things because of either not getting refunds or big delays. I’d probably plan for the worst situation so you know you can do everything you’ve organised/paid for but make it flexible so you can add people closer to the time.

We have a small family so will likely be ok but who knows. I’m going to focus on decorating the house and cooking and cross my fingers. I think it’ll have an awful effect on services at church and it would be really depressing to see it as empty as a normal Sunday.

Vanilla - that’s true about the church services. Our old village everyone used to roll out of the (warm crowded) pub and squeeze into the pews for midnight mass. Can’t see that being endorsed.

@PersonaNonGarter yes. I am a semi regular goer and Easter and Christmas are the only busy times. I think anyone who only attends at Easter or Christmas usually will probably not bother which is a shame but then again understand why you wouldn’t want to risk it if it’s not a big deal. Also the bigger crowd helps drown out my mum’s singing which is enthusiastic but dire!

I'd not even thought this far ahead. I feel like the last few months we've just muddled through one day at a time.

I feel really sad to think we might not be able to go to panto, Xmas markets, etc.

We don't do huge Xmas gatherings anyway as eldest has autism but I don't know what we Will do. My nana went into a care home just before lockdown and has been restricted to one tiny room for most of it which is heartbreaking.

I think at least with all my family kind of nearbyish we can play it by ear more than those that have travel and accommodation to consider too.

Well if the recent kerfuffle with holidays to Spain has taught me anything, it's that it's near impossible to plan anything. We have holidays to Spain in October half term and Center Parcs pre-Christmas, both booked pre-pandemic and I honestly don't know if either will happen. I think OP if you're worrying then chances are your guests will be too so a group chat to discuss possible scenarios seems wise, although who knows where we'll be by December?

We're not making any plans for Christmas yet, it's just too soon (which goes against everything I believe in as I love to plan!) But I am thinking of possible low key activities we could do in case everything is cancelled and we have to stay at home eg at Halloween playing some games like apple dunking and instead of trick or treating stashing sweets around the house or garden for DC to find. I feel we need to try and celebrate and make things special where we can after such a tumultuous year.

@PersonaNonGarter
Tbh this is something we've been discussing since March.
Because of the warmer weather, there have been ways around things so far, but Christmas when it's darker, colder, wet has fewer workaround possibilities.
We normally all get together, so 20 plus of us. Not getting together will still mean my sil will expect her family to come to her or her to them. I know that her and her family will break any guidelines as they did first time around.
The rest of us will I imagine abide if it was lockdown. Given that none of us have been willing to go in one another's homes yet, I doubt we will for Christmas, so for my lo that will mean a Christmas with 2 not 22 this year which will come very hard.

In your shoes I would definetly say that hosting is postponed til next Christmas. Make life easier yourself.

I've heard Christmas markets are being cancelled, the Bath one is huge and very popular - that' cancelled. I think unfortunately it will be a bit "different" this Christmas. We had actually talked about doing a German market this year - good job we didn't book!
I bought my pantomime tickets very early (in February), to get them cheaper but who knows if it will actually go ahead. And we love going to Carol services at local churches but I suspect they might not happen.
Crikey it's all a bit depressing isn't it?

@missyB1 yes it is a bit depressing when you start thinking about Christmas. Summer is doable but
Christmas is a different ball game

I'm not planning on any trips or days out in the assumption those sort of things won't happen this year, that way if they do then happy bonus!

The new baby should be about 3 months old on xmas day so I plan on keeping it as chilled as possible between managing them, a hyper 7 year old and a grumpy OH lol plus the poor darlings have to suffer my cooking!

We normally have a xmas dinner at my mums the weekend before xmas and my sister and her husband come down for it.

We have made a couple of plan changes. We won't be able to do many of our usual Christmas trips, I'm not booking a panto or the other things we usually do. We will still have my dm for Christmas, dmil never decides until just before but can come of course. Not sure whether dbro will be able to travel to us like he usually does, will have to play that one by ear.

Lock down has given us the chance to do quite a bit of decorating in the house, so I have been working out how best to decorate with our new set up.

@BiddyPop

We had intended being abroad (transatlantic) this year.

That’s off.

We then tried to get the cottage near DPs and DMIL, 2.5 hrs from home, to be able to go down there.

But they wanted double what we paid 3 years ago and minimum stay of a week.

So that’s not happening.

But we feel guilty for not seeing them and DMIL is great at passive aggressively making DH feel obliged. So I think we will be “down home” but squashed in to DMILs house, dd on a folding bed (that collapses constantly) in dining room (so needs to be cleared away every day), and given grief about attempting to visit my DPs while there (20 minutes apart).

So we are going to make plans close to the time.

Biddypop, for the sake of your spine, may I suggest that with a bit of the money you've saved, you treat yourself to a better overnight sleeping solution? Maybe one of those fancy beds that automatically blows itself up? You could always take it home again after if MIL doesn't want it there.

I'm considering theming a "Good Life" Christmas this year, with home made crackers where you have to shout "bang" etc. Naturally one will contain the joke about the "ooh aah" bird. 😂

However much we all want it to be ok but Christmas, I just don't see how it will be better than now. My honest expectation is there will be higher numbers of cases.

So I am making different Christmas plans.

I think one of the worst things we can do for our own families is get people together from different parts of the country .

My DW died 4 weeks ago. Christmas is going to be difficult this year. Her 87 yr old mum (my mil) is continuing to live with me. It will be me and her sobbing into our turkey. I may invite a friend to join us and make it more bearable

@joystir59 I am so so sorry for your loss

This Christmas will be our first with DC due in 2 weeks so was always going to be a bit strange! I’ve suggested to DH that we use the opportunity of newborn plus Covid to get our own new traditions in place. We’ve agreed to wake up in our own home this year, travel to my mum and dad’s (20 mins away) for Christmas Day mid-morning, stay at theirs in the evening and then travel down to his mum’s in Devon (2.5 hrs away) early on Boxing Day. If Covid nixes any of those plans they’re relatively adaptable I guess (although I would be gutted not to see my parents and I know both families would be heartbroken not to see tiny DC on their first Xmas)

What will be interesting is Xmas 2021, as I’ve said to DH we should host MIL as I’d prefer our DC to wake up in their own house on Xmas, and he reckons it’d be better to go to hers and be the guests there (MIL is lovely so no complaints at all, just logistics I guess!). But very much hoping Covid won’t be a factor in those plans.

We managed to finally get a quiet Christmas at home last years, my DC and my new(ish) DP, that's my plan again this year so should be doable unless there's a lockdown. Big plans for hosting lots of people and travelling across the country are risky this year.