“Cancelling Christmas” what would this look like?

[CraftyGin]

Imagine that at 9pm on Christmas Eve, a government minister tweets that lock down is intensivied with immediate effect. How would that affect you personally, recognising that we all have different ideas of Christmas.

Our church activities are 11pm service (which would be unaffected), and Christmas morning service. TBH, I would be happy to skip this service but generally have to show up as a warden. All of our services from March onwards are streamed on YouTube, and this will continue indefinitely

Presents - Amazon.

Guests - my DS1 and his wife have stayed for the last two years. With a short notice announcement, they would already have been here for four or five days, so presumably they would continue to stay. My locally living DS and DIL would not be able to socialise, but we could give them a food package.

We would continue to Zoom relatives far from us, and DS would be included as he is now.

Christmas food has leftovers built in, so we would not have any waste.

@squashyhat

It would be a blessed relief. No tat in the shops, no crap music, no over-eating or over-drinking or over-spending. No spending time with fuckwits you wouldn't see any other time of year. And best of all my 60th birthday won't happen. Bring it on.

Not sure a 9.30pm on Christmas Eve announcement would stop any of the first part happening...

It would make no difference to us whatsoever. We have no family or friends so we don’t see anyone over Christmas anyway. We don’t go to church. I’d have done the food and present shopping. We might have some activities like ice skating or a panto/show booked but that would be about it. It would be just as boring and miserable as it is every year!

@shinynewapple2020

Why would anybody sit here at the beginning of August and look for the worst case scenario for 5 months time? Sure there is planning for getting stock in in case you end up in lockdown without notice and shopping is difficult , but why sit here and think of worse case scenarios? There are some people who are struggling enough with the current reality without this .

Because this is effectively what has happened for a significant minority in this country this weekend?

Obviously the shows/panto wouldn’t be on Christmas Day - but I’m a assuming you mean over the whole 12 days of Christmas. Not just one day.

By that time on Christmas Eve, very little effect. DM is in our bubble so she would still be at our house for the day. We wouldn't be able to see the in laws. But we would go for a walk to their houses and say merry Christmas from the street. Christmas Eve evening is spent at home in front of the tv watching Christmas movies and preparing for Christmas Day. Then Christmas Day is at home with DM and the in-laws visit. So really not a huge difference for us.

I think most of mumsnet from Oct onwards is people fed up of inviting people/Staying away/relatives.
I think there would be a huge sigh of relief tbh.

Because you plan for the worst and hope for the best......you cant ignore what happened in leicester and think it'll never happen in your area. You cnat ignore what just happened to those abroad in Spain and think it'll never happen on your trip.

Why would u go on thinking its all going to be perfectly fine and when if isnt then be evidently upset about it

Or you just think hmmmm well things csn chnage at short notice we can plan to have the Xmas we want but if worst happens we have plan b and sfill have a good time of it

It’s impossible to cancel Christmas as it’s simply the date on which a birth is celebrated. You could restrict the celebrations and prevent travelling but most people will already be where they’re going as the traditions usually begin on Christmas Eve.
Most people who celebrate would already be stocked up so I guess Churches might have to stream services but otherwise not a huge difference.

Just me then that would be sad? It would be my daughters first Christmas, no food, no family, no presents. We have a large family (think 5 children and 7 grandchildren) and we all come together every year. For me it would be very sad but maybe everything goes in the freezer and we do it 2 weeks later (or 2 months/years when all blown over)

No difference for us as it would just be DH and me. We don't have visitors at Christmas.
We would have already done the Crib Service at 5pm, but I can't see that being planned this year anyway.

I'd say FUCK BORIS and carry on as normal.

Not listening to anyone who can't seem to organise a piss up in a brewery.

It wouldn't make any difference to us, shops are already shut at that point anyway, and we stay at home so have stuff in. We don't have huge amounts of family and some of us work over xmas anyway so visits are limited to earlier in dec for exchanging gifts. All of the kids have had lockdown birthdays this year so those presents were posted instead so if that happened it wouldn't be the end of the world.

I think a lot of people will make sure they have stuff in just in case they cant go to relatives this year.

Boris's motto will probably be:

Stay in, Get Pissed, Watch Telly.

Halloween, however, is completely fucked.

If it was 9pm on Christmas Eve all my family would be here already, my MIL wouldn’t be able to travel back home on Christmas Day, my mother wouldn’t. plus it would be too late by then. Our family usually arrives on the 23rd.

We wouldn’t be able to see wider family who usually come down on the 27th, but it is a pandemic and we’d cope!

Would make no difference to me.

We only celebrate with immediate family who all live under one roof.

Halloween, however, is completely fucked.

HURRAH!!!!!

Reading through this thread, the one bit of practical advice is that, if you are a traveller for Christmas, makes sure you have a couple of days food in the house. I imagine the big shops will still be closed for two days.

If Christmas does go into lockdown at the last minute, it’s going to affect New Year too. This would affect my children, who are all young adults. I thing Edinburgh Hogmanay has already been cancelled?

I would have been to the choir service and Mass on Christmas Eve but would have to miss the 11am service. Most of the parents come at night so that they can travel or just relax on Christmas morning so I would have seen the children. We have tea/ coffee and mince pies after the service for everyone and that way the parents can take the kids home after and straight to bed. They get a small gift from church.

The presents would be wrapped and under my tree and all the decorations would be up because DD has announced that she won’t be here for Christmas ( currently travelling and in NZ at present so depending on when they lift restrictions as to where she will be) so. Won’t be waiting for her on Christmas Eve.

The pigs will be put in their blankets and stuffing made.
The gammon would have been left cooking and be ready to have a slice when I get back from church.
The veg will be prepped.

My three sons won’t be able to come so we would have to deliver turkey and all the trimmings to each house. They will all be enjoying a longer lie in because they are usually working until stupid o’clock .
Among there gifts is a homemade hamper each so that will be ok and keep them going for a bit.
DH and I will eat earlier because we won’t have to wait for the boys to arrive( someone is always late) and we will stoke up the fire and have room on the sofa for a change. Well probably watch a film. We will have to wash up though which we don’t usually because DS1 always does it.
Then when the time is right we will have a call from DD who might be at my sisters in Australia or might be in Japan.
I will phone my other sisters and BF might come down for a drink outside by the fire pit and exchange gifts.

It will be ok. I will miss the jollity of the family.
BF will be sad not to have the fourteen people for dinner at her house.

just me and my dh he has to work boxing day so not much change

op new years will prob be already off cant see clubs reopening and there wont be allowed big parties

Sounds perfect!! I'd have everything at home and then wouldn't have to see anyone and could watch all my programmes and put the kids to bed at 6 and say "see ya fuckers"

All we will miss out on is hosting family for a big lunch. I will miss that. I love having everyone over and the laughs and chaos. .I won’t miss the clear up though. It seems to go on for days.
We long ago gave up on general present giving for Christmas So that won’t make much difference. .We give to 3 little kids we know, our two adult DC and their partners and our mums, that’s it. I do a secret Santa with a group of about 10 friends but I guess that’s off for this year.

I won’t be able to go to Mass but I’m getting used to that. I don’t know if I’ll ever get back into the habit of regular attendance.

Xmas day pressys and dinner with my 2 DC
. I'be no other family so Xmas will still go ahead in my household

Going by what's happened to friends in Manchester this week: some churches would hold services on the grass outside, others would try to set up a remote service and there would be a great deal of confusion, rumours and WhatsApp speculation about who was doing what, how to access it and how to organise it. A lot of people would end up not participating in a service at all for this reason, some of whom would be very upset by this.

In terms of family get togethers, people who were already in each others' houses would stay there, but other guests wouldn't be able to come. Some would still go to their grandparents/cousins/sisters, with kids in tow, but stand at the end of the path, crying and trying to calm their children down. Others would stay at home, crying, and trying to comfort children who don't understand why they can't see grandma at Xmas or receive presents from her.

There would be significant number of households who had spent weeks preparing for and days cooking for Xmas, decorating their houses, rearranging their furniture, setting up their tables, buying luxury food, choosing presents in anticipation of sharing them with people they loved, whose plans would now be shattered. Like my friend's mother, who sobbed as her immediate family helped her to bed before selecting which food to pack away in the freezer so she wouldn't wake up and see it the next day.

And then that next day, bereft of the warmth and company of those they loved, those same householders would watch other people piling into pubs while they couldn't hug their children.

It would, in short, be pretty devastating.

I hate to break it to any of you planning to go to the panto this year, that there's very little chance of there being one, as the earliest that theatres will find out if they're allowed to do a non-socially distanced performance is November, which is too late for them to actually produce a panto in December. They could do a socially distanced one but it's an expensive show to reduce income on so significantly...Theatres usually start making commitments for their panto about now (whether its casting actors or designing sets) - they'll be reluctant to do (when they're so skint already) without any certainty.

I normally help out on a large Christmas meal for people in the community who are lonely and/or don't have much money. Its a great event, but I don't see it happening this year, regardless of where we are in terms of lockdown - getting 100+ people in a room, quite a lot of whom are elderly and vulnerable, is unlikely to be possible. I do hope there's an imaginative solution found, but I can't currently think of one - perhaps lots of smaller meals? But in a scenario like the one you are describing, these would all be cancelled at the last minute, and the best we could probably manage is a lot of doorstep deliveries on the day.

Wouldn’t affect my Christmas much at all. Food and presents would already have been bought. IF DD is coming home then she would have done so by then.

The only thing we’d miss is calling in to our local pub on our afternoon walk.