Do you think lockdown will be lifted for Christmas?

[BlusteryShowers]

I can't help but feel quietly confident that there will be an announcement some time in December allowing an easing of lockdown measures for a short period over Christmas.

I propose that the govt suspect many would flout rules any way, so they may as well make it Part Of The Plan and take credit for their benevolence.

The timing of the announcement would be interesting. The spending that goes into Christmas is huge and lots of businesses rely on it. Can we even afford a very very low key Christmas?

Does anyone else think this?

I did see this mentioned but just a daft tabloid article.

I’ll be very interested to see what the plan of action is for Christmas if there is one.

I would stick to restrictions for Christmas I think. My mum would probably try and persuade me not to!

Wish I knew! I would love to see my overseas family for Christmas but it seems unlikely unless travel is allowed with testing.

I don't know op, I genuinely think it depends on how the next few months go. They really aren't going to care that it's Christmas if it gets horrific and emergency services are swamped. And you could argue that they will keep the rules as know that some will comply so it will still help, even if others don't.

But who knows, they might give 3 day lift!

I think assume disruption and make good plans but obviously hope for the best. :)

Yes...... Christmas 2022 at this rate.

Well it'll be a weird Christmas on Mumsnet without the usual moaning about visiting the in-laws threads..

They have had to absolutely tank the economy for this horrible virus, it's not like it's all a game and Christmas we'll get a break. Maybe people will really really lock themselves down for a few months before so we are OK to?! But that involves the public not being selfish. Hmm.

Doesn't make any difference to us as its just the 2 of us. Hoping restaurants remain open.

If they did that they would have to extend the same exemption to other religions to allow them to celebrate important holidays with their loved ones too.

I planned last year to do this year just the four of us. I was limbering up to tell the folks (who would have been very pissed off) when this all struck so.....

It would be quite handy for me. Aww shucks. Got to be just the four of us.

I am guessing they will relax the rules for a few days.
We may even have made great progress by then and all restrictions may lift. Who knows.

I doubt it. How will all the people who had their Eid celebrations ruined feel about that?

That’s a very good point about other religions celebrations.

No I don’t think they will make any special allowances for Christmas - see point above re other religious celebrations etc

No chance, because they left it in place for Eid in the Spring, and political correctness requires the Government to be equally harsh to all religions and none.

They didn't do it for Eid. Or for the Jewish New Year.

I just think that lots of industries rely on Christmas spending, and if that doesn't happen or is significantly reduced then that's not economically good either.

Lots of the seasonal markets and events have sensibly been cancelled so that will affect foot fall in town centres.

There are threads running already about people proceeding with plans to have 7/8 people over for Christmas. So the govt can either look like they've failed or embrace it.

Unlikely.
And unless they close schools two weeks before Xmas there'll be a risk to relatives.

WRT other religions, I do agree that then shouldn't be discriminated against, however, Christianity is the official religion of the country and the calendar, bank holidays etc are based on the Christian calendar. So it could be argued that we already do treat Christian holidays differently in order to justify.

China cancelled Chinese New Year.

All sorts of celebrations have been shelved, and I think Christmas will be too. The last thing anyone will want is a huge increase in people travelling the length of the country to stay with extended family

I think it will be the opposite - the current restrictions will stay in place permanently until March.

We'll then have a couple of hard lockdowns over the school holidays - 2 weeks at October, 2 weeks at Christmas - to keep things in check.

No. It would be carnage. So much moving around and mixing in homes, unfortunately, Christmas is the perfect virus friendly holiday.

If they didn't lift it for the other religious festivals I think they'd struggle to justify it, especially if the rates are still high.

Doubt it. Not least because they didn't for other religions which is political suicide.

It's a bad message to send that we can sack off covid rules for a celebration. How far will people take that message.

But mainly because NHS is mid winter pressures and January is the biggest admissions month anyway. No way can it cope with 3 days of everyone going mad and crammIng all the socialising in.

No. Six months from now as they were saying today is March.

From a religious point of view, Easter, which is more important to me than Christmas (and I'm far from alone in this) was right in the middle of lockdown. Just saying.