What does cancelling Christmas actually mean?

311

I'm not having Christmas, we're seeing family the previous week and that's it. I shall be working right through Christmas, in-between and New Year too.
Of course, if there's a total lockdown there won't be any work and in hospitality, no furlough either so things will be a bit harsh.....but I suspect it won't come to that. Christmas is just one day, too much hype about it all.

It means nothing to me. I'll be carrying on regardless. People are dying of lots of things. Every day. Life goes on.

For now is means news outlets sell more papers and attract more traffic to their websites.

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).

They did stop you seeing family in London although it didn't really work

However it plays out I hope people will be compassionate, to those who are desperate to meet and those that are worried and would rather not.

@BlowBadness

you just wouldn't get a buy in from the public for any of that. And the political price would be much too high. You'd need us to become an almost military state to enforce it.

People aren't not just going to accept that the new normal is meeting together via VR 🙄

exactly @zoemum2006

Last year we weren’t allowed to mix indoors with people we don’t normally live with.

But unless you’re amnesiac, you know that.

So I guess this post is some lame attempt to be provocative 🤷‍♀️

Well you will definitely be able to have a friend over because you were able to do that last Christmas. Oh no, wait, it was just Boris Johnson who could have a friend over because the rules don't apply to him . I think they will find it hard enforcing a really strict lockdown again.

We have a meal booked in a restaurant :/

For me it would mean not attending parties, drinks, iceskating and family dinners. It would mean no christingles service or carol services and the last minute dash around the shops to pick up some extras. It would be utterly heartbreaking, and those in Europe already facing a Christmas lockdown have my absolute sympathy.

For me it is more than one lunch on one day with family members. Much more. It is the time of coming together with so many friends and loved ones.

@BlowBadness Using Alexa and Siri? I'm sorry but that is utterly batshit

@BlowBadness,
Are you on a covid committee with Nannyandjohn?

Last Christmas we were under level 4 restrictions which meant we could mix households and (iirc) we could meet one person outside. We missed our last Xmas with MIL . She was diagnosed with cancer in January and died 6 weeks later.

*couldn't mix households i meant to say

Our society is going to have to radically change and accept that big meetings between families, if they happen at all, happen in parks in the summer, but with the new VR technology there's literally no reason to be meeting people of a different generation face to face unless you actually don't care that you could kill them.

(Waving) Hiya Nanny! How's John doing? Love the new handle.

blow Very dramatic posts, but there is no way we will be living our lives in the parks in the summer and VR in the winter, but I do accept your point that there is potential at some point for a very serious variant to take hold, but we have no idea this will be the one. It started in Botswana, and so I very much doubt your claim about the new variant being born in the vaccinated - have you seen the vaccine stats for Botswana?

I do however agree to some degree. I felt something was coming when I watched Boris Johnson totally screw up the business speech, he just looked to me like it was the last thing he cared about and I wondered what exactly was going on - and now we know. Even for him it was all over the place. Whitty started 'worrying' very publicly about compliance with restrictions, and suddenly sky are rolling footage of ICUs again. So the mood does feel like it has shifted. Who can say what this all means for us and christmas, but it is only a few weeks away and we might be able to at least hold out until the end of December if things do turn sour.

@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.

Christ I need to get off this forum and go and read a book or something 🤦‍♀️