Christmas day plans

[Fruitteatime]

It's just hit me that anything we do from today onwards has the potential to mess up our Christmas day plans DD has to go to school, DS to the childminder and I have to work, these are pretty non negotiable. DD and DS both have various clubs and classes that have just started running again after the November lockdown. I guess they could be missed but they will both miss the physical activity. I have also booked to see Santa, a meal out for my birthday and a couple of church services. This is fairly toned down compared to our normal run up to Christmas and my birthday but nonetheless they all have the potential to mean we'd have to isolate during the Christmas bubble period and not be able to see family for months again if we stay on tier two. They live 100 miles away so whilst we are in tier 2 it's not really feasible to see them.

I'm not sure why I haven't considered this before and I'm really not sure whether to go ahead with any of the plans. Am I silly to consider it?

It is worrying isn't it. I am a primary teacher I have one of my class off waiting for test results.
It is so strange to think that one little boys cough could ruin at least 29 (+ families) Christmases.

Yes it’s a worry. Depends how much you want Christmas compared to the other things. Seeing my family at Christmas is really important to me so we made the decision not to do anything non-essential for two weeks before. Our family are doing the same.

I work in a school, 200 in bubble and am waiting for a test result, so I won't be popular as it's been necessary to have close contact with a couple of the children, and a few brief conversations in passing. I am very careful with hygiene, doing my best to social distance, not socialising (or if I do a socially distanced walk with a friend) and still I've caught something.

We are trying to cut back where possible, but we’re in tier 3 so it’s quite easy as we can’t do much anyway.

I know of a few families who are reducing activities to be able to see family over Christmas. It's not so much of an issue for us as my DPs and DSis are both very cautious and don't want to meet up until they're vaccinated. Our Christmas Day plans are just to spend it with our household (we normally have a big meal with 15+ family members) and do a video chat with the rest of the family.

To be honest I'd rather do fun Christmas stuff with my toddler DD while we're able to (we're in London so could be moving from Tier 2 to Tier 3 soon). Lockdown has been miserable and I want her to enjoy herself, it's the first year she's had a real awareness of Christmas. We've booked Santa visits, museums, theatre shows, light shows, although they'll get cancelled if we change tiers. We've never had to be tested or told to self isolate although DD goes to nursery and toddler classes (none of them have had any confirmed cases).

I'm only seeing my sister, brother in law and niece who are my bubble anyway. So, if either of us have to isolate, we can legally meet up any other time and have 'Christmas' then.

If I was able to see other family (especially older and vulnerable family) I would isolate from today (I work in a private school and my children attend private school so we finish today). In your circumstances, I don't know - I wouldn't do anything that wasn't essential, I don't think. Unless you want to do it more than you want Christmas, of course.

Yes anything could lead to a change on plans for Xmas. It’s happened to me, I posted that due to an outbreak at school my mother who is on her own can’t come for Xmas. It’s heartbreaking. But at the end of the day we are in a pandemic so all need to be sensible and flexible. It impacts Xmas plans, but at the end of the day what matters most is people stay safe.

I think I saw on the news that isolation was changing to 10 days

This occurred to me yesterday and I did think about taking DD out of nursery but she’d miss all the Christmas activities and DH has to go to work anyway. I think everyone is going to be holding their breath a bit.

Meh, I'm not worried. Tis life in Covid times. I can cope not seeing family for one year if it comes to that, it's not the end of the world.

We're just keeping to ourselves this Christmas, but no I wouldn't risk it if seeing family is v important to you. We're having takeaways and sticking to video calls, and giving santa a miss this year x

We decided back in Sept/Oct to have Christmas as our household. Both of my DC were in school (secondary and primary) until the 18th, and we didn’t want to run the risk of passing it onto other family or having to rearrange Christmas with very little notice.

The only “plans” we have is to meet up with PIL. There are a few National Trust nearby so we’ll head to one of those but that will be arranged closer to the time. And then we’re all keeping our fingers crossed for Easter.

We are sticking to our household only so no plans to change. Id hate to pass anything on unknown so we will meet up when it’s safer. The vaccine is here so there is some light at the end of the tunnel.

Trying to be as risk free as possible so no trips out etc this year.

Up to your family if they take the risk knowing you are doing lots of things outside the home.

I've read today that the isolation for contacts in changing to ten days, at least I can enjoy the weekends activities without worrying as much that we might have to isolate as a contact of someone we sat near. I think if we catch covid it's more like to come from our necessary activities so if we have to isolate on Christmas day because we have symptoms then so be it.