We, and quite a few people I know, are being careful this Christmas and we've agreed not to see relatives (a mutual decision, as they're quite high up the list for jabs). And while I have been extremely worried all term about outbreaks, I'm actually more worried the weeks after Christmas when people who have got together, or who have partied, then send kids back to school.
As usual, the government are several weeks behind. Testing should have taken place after a couple of weeks of school (in all parts of the country) to see what was going on, so they could actually do something about it. Private schools break up tomorrow anyway (meaning most ministers' children are fine), but state schools are now meant to have testing in the final week - resulting in families isolating over Christmas, and then able to meet up in the last few days before next term.
They'd be better off just giving good notice now to run rota systems and support parents who need it in keeping off, on alternate weeks, non-keyworker kids to work from home in January. Or to put some classes in church buildings, or empty offices, etc. and employ extra staff to teach the small classes. (Teaching has a huge turnover rate, so there must be a lot of qualified teachers who might consider returning - temporarily - to well-spaced classes of 15). It would take a lot of work to implement, but if the government actually thought ahead for once, we could manage to keep infections low while the vaccine is being rolled out. It's only an emergency measure.
I'm genuinely dreading January, the way things are going. It's appalling, how the government has ignored worried teachers and parents, and the outbreaks in the North.