What does cancelling Christmas actually mean?

[User135644]

A lot of talk and fear now that Christmas is going to be screwed again with this new variant causing a lot of fear and panic.

What does that actually mean though in practice? Christmas to me is spending time with family and i'll be doing that regardless. They aren't going to stop people visiting relatives this year (at least not locally).

[Ted27]

@julieca

I will and have done, as far as I could/can when restrictions allowed. When tiers were introduced, we were in different ones. They are 150 miles away, can't just pop round to sit in the garden with them.
I was however responding to a particular somewhat over dramatic post about killing grannies.

[Paquerette]

@MarchingOnTogether

Christmas 2019 we had all our family together, my partner and kids, my sister and neice and my dad and step mum, it was brilliant.
My dad was planning to move away so we really pushed the boat out to make it a good one.
2 weeks later he was gone, he picked up a flu like virus over new year and died within days, it was so unexpected.
After covid hit one thing I was so grateful for was that we got to spend that time.with him, we had a great Christmas and we were able to be with him in the hospital for his last days...
Last year we had restrictions in place for a good reason and whilst for most it was a price worth paying, there will be some who missed out on a last Christmas or a final meeting with a loved one...
Now we have vaccines, we have testing, we are so much better prepared. We can't be expected not to hug or kiss our loved ones and have proper family get together over Christmas. Be sensible, use lateral flow tests before mixing with people & get a pcr if you have symptoms. Other than that, get on with it and enjoy Christmas

LTFs shouldn’t necessarily be trusted. My DS has been doing them for school. Did his Sunday one in the evening - completely negative. He came home from school Monday with a slight headache, which had started after lunch. Tested him Tuesday morning, and the line came up straight away. PCR has confirmed covid. Had we have been meeting up with anyone on Sunday, then he was most likely contagious. He’s in primary school, so I did both tests. I definitely wouldn’t trust them for a get together with elderly or vulnerable people.

[julieca]

@Ted27 then go and see her now and again at Xmas. No one is stopping you.

[Ted27]

@Shell4429

My mother is 78 and not in the best of health. She has had 3 great grandchildren both this year- yes she is at the point where she wishes to hold those babies rather than eke out an existence.
There is more to life than sitting alone in a chair waiting for death

[MarmitesMyMate]

If they attempt to cancel there won't be much compliance.
I mean they can't police it. Our neighbourhood had 9 burglaries last week. A neighbourhood 5 miles away hhad 6 the week before. They reckon its the same gang. Yet police have visited no one! Because there isn't the resources. So they're no going to come and check everyone's being good on Xmas day ffs.

Everyone enjoy Xmas as best u can.

[PinkSparklyPussyCat]

Have you asked her whether she wants to risk death to spend Christmas with you?

So you would leave a recently widowed disabled woman (who presumably can make her own decisions regarding visitors) on her own? Were you always this heartless or is it an effect of covid?

[Cyw2018]

Canceling Christmas (or restricting it to just Christmas Day like last year) means screwing over the most essential of key workers, ie those working on Christmas Day, who would miss out on Christmas completely.

[ElephantOfRisk]

WFH if you can never left Scotland.

I just can't believe how so many people are still sucked into all this shite tbh. It just makes me so angry.

[FanGirlX]

@Exhausteddog

Does anyone think they will reinstate wfh if you can?

I thought they already had?
Tbh that is fairly fluffy and open to interpretation from individual employers. Its not as defined as say, wear masks in shops.

They have in Scotland but not in England (yet BJ often follows NS, a few days later 😂). Not sure about Wales and NI.

[Shell4429]

[quote Topseyt]@BlowBadness

You could report me if you liked. I will still visit my increasingly disabled and recently widowed elderly mother this Christmas. In fact, I am also going to visit her next week. My DDs will also all be with us and one will have a friend with her.

Christmas is not cancelled and in this house it certainly won't be. We will carry on as normal, as will all of our wider family, neighbours and friends.

You may fall off your perch / clutch all of your pearls at that if you wish.[/quote]
Have you asked her whether she wants to risk death to spend Christmas with you?

[Riv]

Thanks Viking. I really appreciate it.
It's tough but it's just what most of us who live alone are doing, in spite of what the Mumsnet threads seem to indicate.
We will come through this and we will see each other. It's not like we're on the front line of a war or having to live as refugees or anything similar. We have warm , comfortable homes, enough to eat and good jobs. Just gets me occasionally when others boast about their thoughtlessness which is prolonging this awful pandemic. (hope it's thoughtless and not ignorance or deliberate selfishness) :D.

[VikingOnTheFridge]

@Riv

Not all of us are fortunate enough to have family that live locally, so if travel is in anyway restricted, we won't see them.
Both my DC are single and live alone in very small flats at the opposite side of the country to me .I saw them for Christmas 2019. Because of restrictions and our jobs I have seen each of them for one single overnight stay and once for a few hours outside since then. I have no other family. We all spent Christmas 2020 totally alone in our respective homes. If restrictions are brought in, we will all spend Christmas 2021 alone in our respective homes again. Friends will see their local family as usual, or travel a couple of hours to meet family outside. I would have to do a minimum 7 hour each way drive without a break for that. I am just not physically able to drive 14 hours in one day, even for an hour or two with my family. They don't have cars.
That's what cancelling Christmas means for me, and for many others like me. Sitting alone again with the telly and maybe a cook-chill chicken dinner. Not worth making the effort really.

[generalh]

My son has been on a 9 month deployment ans I how to travel to Portsmouth on 10th Decand then to Cambridge to see him just after Christmas. That is all I want.

[Riv]

Not all of us are fortunate enough to have family that live locally, so if travel is in anyway restricted, we won't see them.
Both my DC are single and live alone in very small flats at the opposite side of the country to me .I saw them for Christmas 2019. Because of restrictions and our jobs I have seen each of them for one single overnight stay and once for a few hours outside since then. I have no other family. We all spent Christmas 2020 totally alone in our respective homes. If restrictions are brought in, we will all spend Christmas 2021 alone in our respective homes again. Friends will see their local family as usual, or travel a couple of hours to meet family outside. I would have to do a minimum 7 hour each way drive without a break for that. I am just not physically able to drive 14 hours in one day, even for an hour or two with my family. They don't have cars.
That's what cancelling Christmas means for me, and for many others like me. Sitting alone again with the telly and maybe a cook-chill chicken dinner. Not worth making the effort really.

[MarchingOnTogether]

Christmas 2019 we had all our family together, my partner and kids, my sister and neice and my dad and step mum, it was brilliant.
My dad was planning to move away so we really pushed the boat out to make it a good one.
2 weeks later he was gone, he picked up a flu like virus over new year and died within days, it was so unexpected.
After covid hit one thing I was so grateful for was that we got to spend that time.with him, we had a great Christmas and we were able to be with him in the hospital for his last days...
Last year we had restrictions in place for a good reason and whilst for most it was a price worth paying, there will be some who missed out on a last Christmas or a final meeting with a loved one...
Now we have vaccines, we have testing, we are so much better prepared. We can't be expected not to hug or kiss our loved ones and have proper family get together over Christmas. Be sensible, use lateral flow tests before mixing with people & get a pcr if you have symptoms. Other than that, get on with it and enjoy Christmas

[Exhausteddog]

Does anyone think they will reinstate wfh if you can?

I thought they already had?
Tbh that is fairly fluffy and open to interpretation from individual employers. Its not as defined as say, wear masks in shops.

[tiktokniknok]

Does anyone think they will reinstate wfh if you can?

[Insanelysilver]

I think as awful as it is, if this new variant surges and it’s a real danger to the population, there might be some necessary restrictions.
Yes we are all sick of it but it is what it is.
I think restrictions might be, on a certain number of visitors and maybe on restricting how far we can travel etc.
Hopefully if we all have our jabs and wear masks and try to avoid super spreading events, we might be ok.

[MLMshouldbeillegal]

[quote julieca]@GoldenOmber I am saying things are back to normal now. Not talking about another lockdown.
Another lockdown will leave some temporarily more isolatéd. I suspect we wont have another proper lockdown though. Just mitigations.[/quote]
Hahahahahha, good one.

In Scotland : work from home if you can. Masks on kids all day in secondary schools including in classrooms, distance learning at all universities, doctors/dentists with doors locked and limiting face to face, masks in shops, restaurants, hospitality, vaccine passports for larger events - and that's just off the top of my head.

Some people do really talk nonsense.

[chaosmaker]

@VaguelyInteresting

Well, someone needs to stop *@BlowBadness* reading dystopian fiction, stat. And I say that as someone who plays a running game of “1984” and “children of men” bingo with govt pronouncements (across the board. Not just re: covid).

It’s important to remember that viruses can mutate themselves into less deadly and less effective strains (seemingly what we’re seeing in Japan) and also that EVEN when there are long running pandemics/ epidemics, even when these are incredibly deadly or injurious (Spanish flu, smallpox, polio) - society eventually just lives with it, with very little disruption to the social order once the worst is over. They are ruptures, but ruptures we tend to be seemingly inclined as a society to knit back together as closely as possible to how things were before. (However shit that might have been!)

Things that DO change legally/at a high political level/ socially tend to be directly linked to healthcare, disease control, etc.

I actually think there have been some enormous missed opportunities around covid to create new ways of living and thinking that could have left us in a far better place post-covid than we were before- for example, the issues with transmission in schools would have been a BRILLIANT opportunity to move more schools towards more outdoor based learning (forest school style), as ventilation is key- instead it was “ah open a window and hope for the best”.

We saw an enormous benefit to the planet very quickly when manufacturing shut down briefly- did this suggest that there might be environmental merit in global “holidays” once every year or six months, when all non essential manufacturing stopped? Like massive “rest periods” for the planet? (Taking the Mexico City model where you can only drive your car on certain days)?

Other things like UBI, shorter work weeks, use of masks in winter to reduce all viral transmission, reduction of reliance on plane travel and renewal of interest in train travel...

All of these things - some very small and practical, others insanely blue sky- could be interesting to explore. Maybe we still will. Maybe that’s what will come from this Omicron variant- maybe it will be really transmissible, and necessitate lockdowns - a second chance to learn the lessons from 2020? Or maybe it will fizzle or burn itself out?

None of us knows- but I can guarantee that at some point - probably soon- we will socially come to an unconscious agreement to just “live with it”- whatever that means for death tolls/ long term effects- rightly or wrongly. It’s what we’ve done for millennia, from the plague to the Spanish flu.

Totally agree. I don't understand the 'get back to normal' lot. So much better to have a normal that is transformational and seeks to make equality in all things a reality. I guess people really are scared of change as seen for this gov getting voted in for no reason rather than a productive coalition of the best thinkers from parties.

[ThousandsOfTulips]

@Overnightoats1

Spare a thought for all those who live in the UK from Southern Africa whose Christmas really has been cancelled ... again.. it's only been a month since they were allowed to see their family and that has been taken away again... it's pretty horrendous

That's awful. So many people have been separated from their families abroad in these last couple of years - including much of my own family - and I agree with you this is usually glossed over by those who don't experience it.

[ThousandsOfTulips]

@Bignanny30

How can you cancel Christmas ? Doesn’t it come on 25th December every year. Wasn’t it the day some one important was born!? 🤷‍♀️

No. That so-called "important" person was actually most likely born sometime in March/ April according to historians. And many people don't feel that person is particularly important anyway.

In the UK and across much of Europe there has always been a midwinter festival where family and friends come together to feast and celebrate as it helps people to survive the dark and miserable winter months. Christianity attempting to impose one of its major festivals over the top of this doesn't eradicate the need for this, or the joy of it, for those who don't believe in sky fairies, despite the name of the celebration having been changed.

HTH.

[starlight13]

If any restrictions are announced they'd better be prepared to police it well as I can't imagine anyone will abide or give a toss this year.

[julieca]

@GoldenOmber I am saying things are back to normal now. Not talking about another lockdown.
Another lockdown will leave some temporarily more isolatéd. I suspect we wont have another proper lockdown though. Just mitigations.

[Overnightoats1]

Spare a thought for all those who live in the UK from Southern Africa whose Christmas really has been cancelled ... again.. it's only been a month since they were allowed to see their family and that has been taken away again... it's pretty horrendous