Would you prefer 5 days of proper Christmas or a slight relaxation now?

[BecomeStronger]

The BBC seem to be suggesting hat the tiers will be tightened when we come out of this lockdown, in order that we can have 5 days of family gatherings at Christmas.

Personally, I'd far rather we go back to groups of six and outdoor sport than continue to restrict all that so we can have a "proper" Christmas.

@TokyoSushi

If you look at the breaking news *@unicornparty*, it sounds like he's going to...

The news this morning suggest you'll be able to bubble with 2 other houses - hardly a free for all!

Exactly! He'll allow some kind of family Xmas by the looks of it but nothing like a free for all.

I'm not bothered about Xmas I want this over ASAP not drag it out for the sake of 5 days

I work in the NHS so I’m used to working Christmas. My normal Christmas isn’t one day. I meet friends for food and drinks in the lead up, my partner and I go out too, Christmas themed days/nights . I see family Christmas Day if I’m not working and in-laws around my days off in between then and new year.

I’ve accepted this year isn’t the same, I was hoping me and my partner would get a couple of evenings out and maybe a mooch around the makers markets. I’ll meet friends outside to exchange presents. Family are doorstep visits.

I’ve read this morning that tiers will be tougher after this lockdown and that’s disheartening. In Greater Manchester we went into restrictions in July. We still had a high number of cases regardless of all this.
I feel we are passed the peak ( in this area it was bad) and cases are going down quickly.

I work for the NHS I know how bad covid is and how much of my hospital it is taking up but these constant restrictions are never ending. I agreed we needed a lockdown but a short sharp one a month before we had it.

January will be bad there’s no doubt about that, so I’m unsure why things can’t be open in December like restaurants/food pubs, most are so good at being covid safe. I accept restrictions are needed and we need to be careful. But the reports in reading are things still being closed in high areas.

I m not bothered about xmas day we don’t see anyone and just have it the four of us. Christmas for us is all the days out, we would usually have done two weekends of these already. So I would rather have these through December than a relax over 5 days of Xmas. The two things I was most looking forward to were a theme park weekend 18th/19th and our annual new year break, I m assuming new year will definitely be cancelled and we need to wait and see about 18th/19th.

I'm astounded that the government are reportedly leaning towards relaxing the rules for a five day period over Christmas and somehow making up for this with a tighter lockdown before and after Christmas.

Are the rules necessary or not? If they are necessary why can they be relaxed?

Since March due to the rules my family have:
Cancelled a wedding,
Had an awful tiny socially distanced funeral
Closed my business for a period as I can't work from home, and can't claim any help.
Celebrated birthdays alone
Left my father who lives in central leicester largely alone, lonely and increasingly fraiL
Cancelled UL trips
Not seen friends and family for celebrations and who need support and friendship,

Why should we have missed out on so much if it is ok to forget it all for five days?

I've followed the rules but if they can be relaxed for Christmas then I feel like saying 'fuck you Boris' I'll do what suits me from now on.

I'd rather have less restrictions now. The full-on Christmas won't be possible for many people anyway (keyworkers are expected to work on those days of relaxed rules that have been proposed, for a start). I suspect that whatever we're allowed to do, there will always be people who say "sod it" & do their own thing anyway when it comes to mixing. Just as there will be people who are more cautious.

I can't bear the thought of being shut away in January. People will lose their jobs.

@Chaotic45 Why should we have missed out on so much if it is ok to forget it all for five days? I so agree with what you've said there. It just feels all wrong to me.

@Uiseag thank you. I'm glad I'm not alone. I feel like screaming!

Everyone wants something that will suit their own particular circumstances. For me, that's being allowed to travel 200miles to London with my two daughters to visit my parents and brother (one household), in their home for a few hours. Seen them once since March. Outside isn't possible as my mother is still awaiting her bunion and cataract operations. I don't care which particular day it is, just that it happens. I quite also like to see PILs, but that can happen outside.

I agree Chaotic. It doesn't make sense to have been told to keep apart from everyone for months & months, to be told it's ok to do it for 5 days or whatever.

I'd rather be told to continue to be cautious eg social distancing indoors, wash hands etc, but over a longer period.

Everyone wants something that will suit their own particular circumstances
Absolutely this. Trying to squish it into a small time period seems like madness to me, though. It isn't doable for some families, so it'll either create more stress in an attempt to do it, or people won't bother at all.

I can’t actually believe we’re expected to believe in a deadly virus as well as be told we can mix households for a few days just because it’s Christmas? I do believe it’s a deadly virus, but all the sceptic people I know will just see this as proof that it’s not that bad. I find it absolutely bizarre that the government would even entertain it.

As it is, we’ll have a newborn and there’s no way we’ll be mixing households in a tier 3 area, and the risk that entails. Mental

Boris is caving in to a tiny group of 70 MPs - a tiny minority - who are noisily anti-lockdown.
Also a couple of right-wing papers like Telegraph and Fail who are peddling a 'save Christmas' storyline (briefly dropped yesterday when the world-breaking news that Holly W's children had colds was the top news story on the Fail website).

3 households mixing indoors is hardly bubbling - it is full-on household mixing and is pretty much equivalent to a virus free-for-all.

I want the suggested 22nd to 28th, it will make things much better, I can see family in smaller groups rather than crammed into on day.

To be honest, what I really want is all shops, pubs, restaurants open. I want to shop for Christmas and go out for meals. The small businesses are on their knees and they rely on the Christmas trade to tide them over. And I want it all Christmassy....

We won't be mixing with other households indoors no matter what the new rules are. I don't enjoy the element of jeopardy. I also don't think hospitality should be reopened yet.
I would like the rules on outdoor sport to be looked at. It makes no sense why people can't play golf. Would love to see the kids being able to do their sports again too.
Christmas is irrelevant this year in my opinion.

@Stillgoings "jeopardy" is a great way to describe it.

Over the last few months despite meeting outdoors and being very careful I've had a lot of near misses. Nephew, friend, DS' cousin, and others have tested positive soon after meeting with me outdoors. Each time I've been lucky, but had I not been so lucky I might have ended up passing it into someone else- which I so don't want to do, especially an older relative for the sake of a turkey meal.

Fuck Christmas.

Let business open and let us out.

I was pregnant at the start of the first lockdown so haven't seen family or friends since then and having gone through a 8 day hospital stay including parts of early labour without support and looking after a newborn alone overnight with sepsis amongst other issues, I feel like it d be very selfish of me to get complacent about being careful now.

Although I want people to meet my son I don't want to add to other people suffering the same as I did when I can cope without seeing people at Christmas this year. At this point I ll do whatever needs to be done for this all to be over more quickly.

Presumably the government are thinking that groups will mix over Christmas no matter what the rules are. So they’re trying to offset this with tighter regs before and afterwards. I can see their point - on other threads on here, there are plenty of posters saying “I’m going to see my mum and sister’s families not matter what”.

@Lemons1571

Presumably the government are thinking that groups will mix over Christmas no matter what the rules are. So they’re trying to offset this with tighter regs before and afterwards. I can see their point - on other threads on here, there are plenty of posters saying “I’m going to see my mum and sister’s families not matter what”.

Only a tiny minority will disobey rules. A larger proportion will do what they are told is allowed, no matter if there is still risk involved, they just automatically do the maximum permitted. A larger majority think this 5-days of Christmas mixing and transmission is short-sighted and not justified by the massive consequences and subsequent restrictions. I don't think the government is really listening. There are 70 very noisy MPs and some very noisy lobbying groups, plus Richie Rishie who doesn't care the slightest about people getting the virus. Boris needs to man up and stand up these noisy bullies and do what is best for the nation's health, teachers, schools, etc. Lockdown in Jan and Feb is hardly an economic panacea after all, no matter how much we spend at Christmas.

These games of "would you rather" are fun, but the reality is that people are going to meet over Christmas regardless of what the rules are, and the only sensible thing for the gov to do at this point is to plan a way to mitigate that fact. A minority of people may follow the rules and have Christmas alone or with just the people they live with, the majority will say something like "I'm happy with a low key Christmas but there's no way I'm not seeing my child/parent/partner" especially if said child/parent/partner would otherwise be alone. The last (hopefully smallest) group of people will meet whoever they want, as much as they want. And unless the gov are planning on putting police officers on every residential street, which they obviously won't because they'd never get reelected ever again, there isn't anything they can do about it. That's before you remember that Boris will do anything he can to get one of the rags running a "Borris saves Christmas" headline. Any plan or campaign that doesn't take into account the high likelihood of this being the reality over Christmas, is just a waste of time.

@ByGrabtharsHammerWhatASavings

These games of "would you rather" are fun, but the reality is that people are going to meet over Christmas regardless of what the rules are, and the only sensible thing for the gov to do at this point is to plan a way to mitigate that fact. A minority of people may follow the rules and have Christmas alone or with just the people they live with, the majority will say something like "I'm happy with a low key Christmas but there's no way I'm not seeing my child/parent/partner" especially if said child/parent/partner would otherwise be alone. The last (hopefully smallest) group of people will meet whoever they want, as much as they want. And unless the gov are planning on putting police officers on every residential street, which they obviously won't because they'd never get reelected ever again, there isn't anything they can do about it. That's before you remember that Boris will do anything he can to get one of the rags running a "Borris saves Christmas" headline. Any plan or campaign that doesn't take into account the high likelihood of this being the reality over Christmas, is just a waste of time.

If David C. was still in charge, we would be having a referendum about it. Then Boris could get a bus and write on it that mixing with other households at Christmas will turn out absolutely fine and will be great for the NHS.

If David C. was still in charge

If David C was in charge he would have resigned immediately in March, as soon as herd immunity was abandoned and lockdown imposed. Good luck everyone, byeeeee! 👋 ✈

@PicsInRed

If David C. was still in charge

If David C was in charge he would have resigned immediately in March, as soon as herd immunity was abandoned and lockdown imposed. Good luck everyone, byeeeee! 👋 ✈

Bit like BJ will do after Brexit has been 'delivered'