Christmas bubble! What a load of shit

[doodledo92]

Christmas bubble.... really! Sorry but what a load of bollocks all this shit is now!!

They know people are going to anyway, I guess they think it better to have some guidance in place.

@Backbee

They know people are going to anyway, I guess they think it better to have some guidance in place.

Yes, they have tried but past experience has shown that a lot of people don't actually care. So all we can do is manage our own risk.

I think it will be put into law which is what they did before with the existing lockdown 2 in England. So we need to wait for the law to be sure what it says although it is likely to be similar - no Christmas lunch for Xenia Law 2020 following the Cancellation of the Xenia Easter Regulations 2020.

@Laiste
Ah. This means that having my adult daughter who doesn't live with us over for xmas day, plus an adult daughter who does live with us's boyfriend over as well means that's us done!?

This would put your daughter's boyfriend's household in your Christmas bubble. So would mean they couldn't bubble with anyone else, which they might be unhappy about. (Unless bf lives on his own, of course).

It’s the government accepting there is no way to enforce restrictions and so asking us to be reasonable.

@Sparklingbrook

Is it guidance? I thought they were going to put it into law?

They have said what's allowed. As I said above I doubt they will be kicking anyone's doors in. It seems that people can't make a decision for themselves regarding risk do the Government have to do it for them...

Given police have shown off about fining a man for having a cup of tea at a friend’s house, I can imagine that there will be fines over Xmas, sorry to say.

'there's a billion options between these two'

Exactly. Which option would you pick, to please everyone?

It really sucks for someone like me who is the only member of their extended family following the guidance/rules/law. So everyone else will meet up at Christmas as usual. Their DC will get to play together and exchange gifts. They’ll get the big family meal and celebrations.
We will be alone with our DC because we want to be as responsible as we can and protect our older relatives. They won’t consider splitting into smaller groups. I guess they’ll also probably have a laugh and a joke about us on the day. I’ve already been told I should just ‘use my common sense’ etc. We will be seen as opting out when really they are excluding us. Not that they would ever look at it that way.

@doodledo92

It's ridiculous! Meet up with 4 other households is it?? Enjoy yourself for 4 days... then what??? Will it all be put on hold for 4 days so people can enjoy themselves with family! But... then back to not seeing family but can see work colleagues and school friends In work environment and school environment!

It's all beyond me now! I give up

Why don't you tell us what guidelines YOU would put in place OP? How would you manage it? Serious question.

@Backbee

They know people are going to anyway, I guess they think it better to have some guidance in place.

My expectation is that people who were going to have limited/no meetups at Christmas because of concerns about risk will continue to do this.

People who were going to carry on as normal will still do this.

And that there will be a very small number of people who were unsure about what to do for the best that might actually change their behaviours.

So, by and large, this is a PR exercise (possibly to keep the general public talking about it so as to distract them from something else that is going on).

@MorrisZapp

'there's a billion options between these two'

Exactly. Which option would you pick, to please everyone?

I listed The Acorn Plan on the dystopia thread.

@EnglishRose1320

The bit I don't understand and please correct me if I've got this wrong is, if my area goes back to tier one then I can technically meet up to 5 other people inside from a mix of households, with no limits on how many different groups from the 2nd until the 23rd, but then I can only mix with 2 other households for the Christmas period. So I could see my siblings and parents all separately in the run up, and then just bubble with my partners family over Christmas? The only difference being anyone I meet up with pre the 23rd I have to keep my distance from?

I'm not planning to meet loads of people if this is the case, also no guarantee we will go back into tier one. Just trying to make sure I've understood it correctly.

There are quite a few journalists on twitter now saying they've been told that there won't be any tier 1 areas, so I guess that's why the government hasn't worried too much over this apparent contradiction.

@Laiste - so your choices probably are:

DD’s boyfriend goes to his family instead (assuming that’s an option?) and you see PILs. Or meet PILs outdoors for a Boxing Day walk.

We would normally meet at BILs house but they have two adult children who each live alone - so their bubble is “full” so we can strike that off our list of options.

@HelloMissus

It’s the government accepting there is no way to enforce restrictions and so asking us to be reasonable.

In that case that's what they should do. It's such bad law and such a bad precedent to have laws that you don't expect people to follow.

For what it's worth, I actually think just allowing two-household bubbles would have been a better option; it's much clearer.

I'm not exactly moaning and the reason I think it's a load of shit is cos it's 1 year people won't be able to have a "normal" Christmas.
Surely if this virus is so "dangerous" then 1 year without meeting lots of people to celebrate "1 day" won't hurt.

Everyone wanting things to go back to normal and for the economy to get better then why form these bubbles.
Just stay at home with your immediate family and hopefully thinks can get back to "normal" a lot quicker.
This is just going to cause harm than good.
Personally I'm getting sick of being told what I can and can't do now as well

Totally nuts.

If you have two siblings and each of you have a partner and 3 or 4 kids, in theory you can have more people for Christmas than you can have to your wedding. A wedding, if you're lucky, happens once. Christmas happens every year.

And our armed forces, NHS, carers, police and other emergency services, care home and in the home carers as well as cab drivers work every bloody Christmas - along with others I've probably forgotten. I know it's their job and they 'signed up for it' but we've known for months that Christmas probably would mean no family round. People need to get a grip.

And yes, there are people who are alone to consider but you can add single people to your bubble already so that was covered months ago.

Be ready for another lockdown in January and even more pressure on the NHS etc. in 2021. The world has gone completely bloody bonkers if one day is a priority over the health of the nation.

@PixelatedLunchbox I haven't got a clue, I'm glad I'm not in that position to have to put guidelines in place!
I just think we should carry on doing what we're doing whether it be Christmas or not!
Just wait for the vaccine, then try and get back to normal

If they shut the schools a week early thus wouldn't be too awful. But no, they'll be 6 days between break up and households mixing. Third week in January might be a nightmare in schools and the NHS.

@LondonJax

Totally nuts.

If you have two siblings and each of you have a partner and 3 or 4 kids, in theory you can have more people for Christmas than you can have to your wedding. A wedding, if you're lucky, happens once. Christmas happens every year.

And our armed forces, NHS, carers, police and other emergency services, care home and in the home carers as well as cab drivers work every bloody Christmas - along with others I've probably forgotten. I know it's their job and they 'signed up for it' but we've known for months that Christmas probably would mean no family round. People need to get a grip.

And yes, there are people who are alone to consider but you can add single people to your bubble already so that was covered months ago.

Be ready for another lockdown in January and even more pressure on the NHS etc. in 2021. The world has gone completely bloody bonkers if one day is a priority over the health of the nation.

Exactly!!!

That's a refreshing thread title!

We are choosing not to activate any Christmas "bubbles", we'd rather prioritize continuing to dodge this crappy virus, however people with elderly/sick relatives probably want to see them. (A bad idea IMO, but what can you say?)

Given police have shown off about fining a man for having a cup of tea at a friend’s house, I can imagine that there will be fines over Xmas, sorry to say.

Bit more tricky at Christmas, they kick the door down then have to spend a while trying to determine how many households are inside before making any arrests presumably.

@JacobReesMogadishu

My understanding is -

(1) mixing at Christmas is not safe, hence the warnings from scientists
(2) however, politicians know that if they ask people not to mix AT ALL over Christmas, then plenty of people will ignore that, which normalises rule breaking, and then it becomes a free for all in January
(3) aim is to aim of imposing a limit over Christmas is to encourage people to think of it as a short term measure, which will increase compliance afterwards

'just ask people to be reasonable'

See MN threads from October onwards every year about the hell of trying to please everyone at Christmas. With specific rules in place, you can say 'oh what a shame we can't come because of the restrictions' instead of having to explain to your in laws that your own common sense has led you to include your mother at Christmas but to exclude them.

The UK panic bought toilet roll before lockdown last time. Asking for individuals to use their own judgement is absolutely pointless.

We have spent since March social distancing and being told we can't hug anyone and yet for 5 days we don't need to distance and can hug!!

Bloody pathetic. Me and DH will be spending Christmas on our own.

And the specifically said people are able to Hug... Oh Lordy🤦🏽‍♀️ seriously... I am really not up for lockdows and Tiers dragging on until Spring/Summer next year. We are going to go back to square 1 ... all this being announced when daily death figure is +/- 600 . Stupid people are not going to wait until Christmas... they will start meeting from next week.