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).

@GoldenOmber

For Christians the (incorrect) anniversary of Jesus's birth will happen whether there is a lockdown or not.

It was a bit shit when all the churches were closed and we couldn’t see our families, though.

Less shit than the consequences of spreading Covid around at Mass for each worshipper to take it back home, to the food bank, to the homelessness shelter, to the workplace, to the vulnerable relative that needed help in accordance with normal lockdown requirements, onto the bus that essential workers used and everywhere else, though.

Oh yes, @Inertia, re: his wife's friend. When questioned about it, they tried to make out she was there for childcare purposes and was part of that associated bubble.

No, I will NOT cancel Christmas. If I'm expected to mix in the Covid-pit that is a primary school at the moment with seemingly no risk, then I think I can see family and friends straight afterwards.

[quote Silverswirl]@PriamFarrl are you really that blinkered to what is going on elsewhere in England?
The south could NOT mix AT ALL. It was stay at home except for essential supplies or excercise. for many counties
My elderly parents couldn’t see us or any of the grandchildren at all and their food all went to waste.[/quote]
Well just as blinkered as the original poster who said that we were all told to stay in our homes.

It wasn’t where I live, in the south.

The institution of Tier 4 on December 19th 2020 (3 days after the Prime Minister said it would be inhumane to cancel Christmas) cancelled a normal Christmas for millions of us.

We weren't allowed to travel out of our local area or spend time with people we didn't live with indoors.

We were allowed to meet one person outdoors which many of us employed to hand over Christmas presents in a mutually agreed car park.

So, Tier 4 rules applied nationally would effectively cancel many people's Christmas plans.

war is war

Evidence how bad lockdown has been for mental health. Some peoples minds have been broken by it.

We’re due to go and see family overseas, haven’t seen them in 3 years now. It would be devastating for the grandparents if that gets cancelled again. Genuinely worrried that if this is cancelled again at Xmas the next time DW might see her parents will be at one of their funerals.

As I said previously, many people lost family members due to Christmas Day mixing last year.

And many like my friend lost the chance to have a last Christmas with family members.

We are supposed to be seeing both sides of our families this Christmas, travelling to stay with both in turn. I will be genuinely devastated to have to miss out on seeing them all yet again. They’re too far away to see for just a day, so we won’t see anyone. I have truly been looking forward to this for months. Yes, fine, we’ll still have at least some gifts to exchange, and we can FaceTime, and I’ll cobble a special meal together if I have to. But I just want to see my mum and give her a hug, and DH wants to see his family too. You can’t replicate that on a screen, you just can’t. And that is what Christmas means to us as a family.

Less shit than the consequences of spreading Covid around at Mass for each worshipper to take it back home, to the food bank, to the homelessness shelter, to the workplace, to the vulnerable relative that needed help in accordance with normal lockdown requirements, onto the bus that essential workers used and everywhere else, though.

Yeah, let’s just ban all religious services forever until we’ve eliminated all forms of infectious disease.

Look, I did the last lockdown, I went along with the last lockdown, I even think it was the least worst option to buy time for vaccinations. But I am fed up of people claiming it wasn’t really that bad. It was that bad. It was awful.

@PrincessNutNuts

The institution of Tier 4 on December 19th 2020 (3 days after the Prime Minister said it would be inhumane to cancel Christmas) cancelled a normal Christmas for millions of us.

We weren't allowed to travel out of our local area or spend time with people we didn't live with indoors.

We were allowed to meet one person outdoors which many of us employed to hand over Christmas presents in a mutually agreed car park.

So, Tier 4 rules applied nationally would effectively cancel many people's Christmas plans.

Here is a list of the different areas and the tiers they were on on the 19th of December last year. www.gov.uk/government/speeches/review-of-local-restriction-tiers-17-december-2020

It was awful @GoldenOmber lockdown effects can be worse for some people than having Covid itself, but if our complacency with Omicron proves to be at our detriment the fall out could be far, far worse and have repercussions that reach well into next year. I’m not sure how many would be willing to take their chances if we see a worst case scenario or even half of one.

@Heyvedge

The fines last year were £100 in England if you paid within a couple of weeks, £200 if you didn't, we just factored them into the Christmas spending if by slim chance we got one

Did you genuinely just not care about potentially killing your relatives? Last year's restrictions weren't based on nothing...we didn't have vaccines yet, nobody had immunity and the chances of someone vulnerable dying or becoming very sick were pretty high.

The list is dated the 17th but to take effect from the 19th.

www.gov.uk/government/speeches/review-of-local-restriction-tiers-17-december-2020

Omicron now in UK confirmed - as per Sky news breaking news just now

@Pascal80

Omicron now in UK confirmed - as per Sky news breaking news just now

Chelmsford and Nottingham.

No doubt there will be a flurry of threads about that now.

Some people don’t live near family or with their family so a lot of people ended up alone last year

Did you genuinely just not care about potentially killing your relatives? Last year's restrictions weren't based on nothing...we didn't have vaccines yet, nobody had immunity and the chances of someone vulnerable dying or becoming very sick were pretty high.

I was hardly likely to kill DS who had already had Covid, unfortunately all my older relatives that would have been seen as vulnerable were already dead.

People dying of a contagious virus - especially if they WANTED the contact - is not akin to them being "killed". Killing implies some kind of intent.

Everyone who has ever died of a contagious illness in history caught it from someone else.

Covid board will go into meltdown now

@PriamFarrl It predates Tier 4.

@HesterShaw1

People dying of a contagious virus - especially if they WANTED the contact - is not akin to them being "killed". Killing implies some kind of intent.

Everyone who has ever died of a contagious illness in history caught it from someone else.

Yes, but we have some responsibility, don't we? It just isn't right to visit people in a pandemic when the rules are there for a reason.

It's a very different situation now anyone who wanted a jab has got one, and now I'd feel OK visiting elderly relatives, but last year I just don't think it was ethical. Not least because of the chain of transmission it could have caused.

@dabbydeedoo I was in a tier 4 area last Christmas but we decided as a family to break the rules and spend the day together. My older relatives were able to choose for themselves if they wanted to take the risk. We all took lateral flow tests on Christmas Eve before we all mixed which made it a bit safer. I don’t think lateral flow tests were widely available at that point but a couple of us got them from out (NHS) jobs.

@GoldenOmber

Less shit than the consequences of spreading Covid around at Mass for each worshipper to take it back home, to the food bank, to the homelessness shelter, to the workplace, to the vulnerable relative that needed help in accordance with normal lockdown requirements, onto the bus that essential workers used and everywhere else, though.

Yeah, let’s just ban all religious services forever until we’ve eliminated all forms of infectious disease.

Look, I did the last lockdown, I went along with the last lockdown, I even think it was the least worst option to buy time for vaccinations. But I am fed up of people claiming it wasn’t really that bad. It was that bad. It was awful.

Indeed. I live alone and it was absolutely brutal. Just endless days and days stuck at home with no end date, nothing on the horizon, just shitty grey weather and complete isolation. It was awful.

@Heyvedge

Covid board will go into meltdown now

How will we know the difference?

Last lockdown, I was homeschooling a 5yo with ASD. He wasn’t getting any of his speech therapy, or any interaction with other children as he’s an only child and we live outside a village. It was awful. I just don’t know if I have another few months of that in me, to be honest.

However I have read a number of articles, on the BBC and the Guardian, from different experts saying that they don’t expect this variant to send us back to square one and saying that they believe vaccines should still be effective enough to prevent severe disease. So I’m holding onto that thought.