Christmas households: just to confirm..

[Lelophants]

If we see my parents on Christmas day and DH parents boxing day, that means we are three households. So my parents can't then visit their elderly parents or my brother. And my in laws can't visit their other children. 🙈

It’s confusing if you think that the rules are there to let you have a normal Christmas and see every relative you would usually see.
If you see it more as a way of ensuring that everyone can have some company at Christmas (because if you would usually see three other households you can split into two bubbles of two) even if it’s not the people you usually see or all the people you want to see.

@GirlCalledJames

It’s confusing if you think that the rules are there to let you have a normal Christmas and see every relative you would usually see. If you see it more as a way of ensuring that everyone can have some company at Christmas (because if you would usually see three other households you can split into two bubbles of two) even if it’s not the people you usually see or all the people you want to see.

For us it's a lot more restrictive than before because with rule of 6 we would see people seperately but still over the Christmas period. It's not us seeing other households, it's the fact that our parents want to see us but also feel awful about leaving their own parents lonely at Christmas.

What I dont get is can we see them all anyway on the 22nd and 29th because of our tier system?!

“What I dont get is can we see them all anyway on the 22nd and 29th because of our tier system?!”

You don’t know what tier you’ll be in yet but you may be able to meet up outside at distance...

@Happychristmashohoho

“What I dont get is can we see them all anyway on the 22nd and 29th because of our tier system?!”

You don’t know what tier you’ll be in yet but you may be able to meet up outside at distance...

I think if we knew that we could then pick and choose!

My inlaws have to decide whether to see us and their first grandchild who they have missed terribly (as in have been struggling a lot with how little they've seen him in his first year) OR they see their elderly parents who could be having their last Christmas.

Possibly multiple meetings of different groups of six is exactly what they are trying to stop in terms of disease control, while appearing to grant something else and avoiding accusations that they have caused people to be alone at Christmas.

I definitely think this is aimed at people who go off to their countryside manner for a ‘jolly good knees up’ over Christmas!

In reality it’ll lead to a lot of falling out and upset. Everyone is going to want their own choice of 2 other households, which will probably be different per household for example:

We will want my parents and brother who live together and DH parents (we’ll also want my sister but let’s take that out of the equation for now.
DPs will want us and my sister.
PILs will want DH and SIL.
My sister will want DPs and her PILs.
SIL will want PILs and her close friends.
Sister’s PILs will have to choose between their 4 children.

Have I covered everyone?? Someone’s going to have to be the middle of the bubble and have 2 choices and everyone else is going to have to work around them!

@Lelophants the government guidelines have already been posted here, you can meet people outside of the bubble at any time during the 5 days, as long as you follow the rules of your tier. So that might mean rule of 6 and outdoors, but you can still see people. The bubble only means you act as one household in terms of meeting indoors, not social distancing and isolating if anyone gets symptoms, not that you can only see those 3 households for the full 5 days.

Although I am some will question what if you don't like Quality Street and can we eat Celebrations or Caburys Heroes instead?

Or Lindt or Moser Roth, because they actually taste of proper chocolate, unlike all that other crap.

@LadyCatStark

I definitely think this is aimed at people who go off to their countryside manner for a ‘jolly good knees up’ over Christmas!

In reality it’ll lead to a lot of falling out and upset. Everyone is going to want their own choice of 2 other households, which will probably be different per household for example:

We will want my parents and brother who live together and DH parents (we’ll also want my sister but let’s take that out of the equation for now.
DPs will want us and my sister.
PILs will want DH and SIL.
My sister will want DPs and her PILs.
SIL will want PILs and her close friends.
Sister’s PILs will have to choose between their 4 children.

Have I covered everyone?? Someone’s going to have to be the middle of the bubble and have 2 choices and everyone else is going to have to work around them!

You’re lucky to have a big family. I’m sure you’ll manage fine for just one year!

We are a little smaller family so easier for us but would love to have a bigger family like that...

It’ll be interesting to see who wins out! Presumably the most organised person will get in there first with the invites!

Isn’t this just a magnified version of the kind of horse-trading that goes on over most family Christmases? All families have lots of interconnections and even if you try to see everyone over the festive period there are choices about who spends Christmas with whom.

I’m lucky if I get to see my (divorced) parents 1 Christmas in 3. I’ve not seen my brother at Christmas for as long as I can remember.

Ultimately everyone just needs to make some sensible choices and keep our fingers crossed that we can have a bigger family occasion for Easter this year.

[quote polarisation]**@Lelophants* the government guidelines have already been posted here, you can* meet people outside of the bubble at any time during the 5 days, as long as you follow the rules of your tier. So that might mean rule of 6 and outdoors, but you can still see people. The bubble only means you act as one household in terms of meeting indoors, not social distancing and isolating if anyone gets symptoms, not that you can only see those 3 households for the full 5 days.[/quote]
Thank you

@BarbaraofSeville remember the rule that no-one can be in more than one bubble and you can see immediately from your diagram where that breaks down. For B and D to be in only one bubble, the only way is to make a big bubble of 5 households, which is not allowed.

No tiers. Tiers are still operational. You can still see people outside according to your tier. But if you're in tier 3 you're not supposed to travel outside the tier 3 area, except to meet people in your Christmas bubble.

@Happychristmashohoho

Grrrrrrr...., Listening to the radio this morning it was so frustrating with all the people calling in complaining about the new rules and saying it’s not fair because I wanted to see this person and that person etc etc and how do I choose?

These are grown adults! It’s one year people!!!!!

Surely you can appreciate this is potentially a tough choice for many families? In an ideal world, relatives excluded from a bubble would have a flippant 'hey ho' attitude about it but unfortunately, that's not always the case. At best, this'll cause a lot of awkwardness. If not, possible resentment.

(Disclaimer: I'm not a MIL, nor do I advocate ignoring the rules)

Good luck everyone

Also when people have actually been following the rules for months, have practically been isolating and then find out they can't see someone they haven't seen for months because their dear mother is seeing another household, for example, then that's hard.

Hard for them to get through. It depends on your family situation.

What if you want to see a family but they don't want you in their bubble?
You don't see them

This has surely been set up to make sure no one's on their own this Christmas. Not to allow everyone to see everyone. People need to just grow up. Honestly it's one day, one year. Find the best solution and go with that. No it won't be ideal but ffs it's better than nothing.

People with large families? Split it up between you.

Maybe it's because my DF was often working away at Christmas but I just don't get the fuss of having to see bloody everyone!