Anyone else with Christmas plans in the UK feeling jittery?

[QuentininQuarantino]

Last year's Christmas was awful, stuck alone in our host country which was in lockdown. Especially as we only cancelled our UK trip a couple of weeks in advance.

Now it feels a bit like history repeating itself. Most of the presents for the DC are at my parents house in the UK (really specific things that can't be bought here from the letter to father christmas!) and the DC are so excited.

(Also, thanks to fucking Brexit, we have told everyone to post everything to my parents house because of the huge import charges we keep getting stung with.)

We're only over the channel in France, and I keep telling myself its only 3/4 weeks to go.. but I've got that dreadful pit-of-the-stomach feeling.

Anyone else? Fancy some mutual support?

Exactly the same position!!

I'm really not one of the "doom and gloom" subscribers but it's all feeling very uncertain.

We are planning to spend Christmas in the UK and, like you we have been cluttering up a relatives house in the UK with amazon deliveries of big-ish stuff for the grand-children.

Other family members are (supposedly) joining us from a different European country which is seeing alarming numbers at the moment.

Trying to keep busy and remain positive, but it's going to be a looooong three weeks.

Similar but reverse. I'm due to give birth around Christmas and my family have all planned to fly here. We've rented an apartment close to ours and my dm is supposed to take care of dd during the birth. My mum has a suitcase of stuff I ordered in the uk that I couldn't get here. I can't believe this is where we are again. I'm terrified of going into labor on Christmas Day with nobody to take care of dd. It's not like I can send her to a friend while they all open their presents. Do the alternative is that dh stays with dd and I give birth alone.

Yes! We're supposed to be flying on the 14th. The rates here are actually really low (we had a terrible delta wave over the summer and were red listed for ages) but I'm worried there will be some knee-jerk reaction to the new variant. All the presents are at my mum's and we have a big house booked for the whole family.

I'm happy to go earlier and work from the UK (even though it will cost a fortune in air bnb) but it's knowing when to take the call. Hoping it's all a storm in a teacup.

The added kicker is I think my grandma might be about to die - in her 90s and just had a stroke- and I can't imagine not being there for the funeral.

I'm travelling this week for work and I guess we'll review next weekend.

My company exports to France every week. Not sure what huge export charges you’re facing.

Can you not just fly to the UK now?

@RussianSpy101 usually there is a minimum customs fee. My mil sent second hand junk and we had to pay 13 euros for something not worth 13 cents due to processing

@RussianSpy101

My company exports to France every week. Not sure what huge export charges you’re facing.

Can you not just fly to the UK now?

I don’t think my boss would be thrilled if I just went over for an extra 4 weeks during term time.

At least €10 per parcel. Not on things direct from next or m&s, but anything posted by a normal person through Royal Mail.

Yes! I'm getting so worried. I feel sick actually. We have expensive theatre tickets, train journeys, cottage booked etc etc. All the presents are at my in-laws house already.

Fingers crossed for you all. Really hope you make it back or that your family make it to you.

We sadly won't be going to UK this Christmas due to insane quarantine requirements inbound (HK) but already stressed about summer, given both BA and Cathay have stopped flying the route as they cant get the crews to do it, indirect flights are risky/ stressful due to periodic flight bans and that the advice here is don't try to come back in if you have had covid within previous 2 months unless you want to risk the mandatory 24 day hospitalisation. I just find myself lying awake at night running through all the things that could go wrong but at the same time I wont have seen my parents for more than 2 years by then and they're not getting any younger.

We're in Tanzania.
Flights booked for December 11th.
It's looking increasingly lightly we'll go back on the red list soon.

So pissed off. I've not seen family for nearly two years

I am not in the UK and my parents are meant to be coming here for Xmas. Almost tempted to get mum out now and send her back if they add us to the list. If no issues dad can follow in 3 weeks. Tjey javen't seen my children in 2 years

I'm on the other end of this, my sister and her family are supposed to be flying in from the Uk for a week at Christmas. Last time I saw then was nephew was a newborn (Nov 2019) now he's a walking talking 2 year old. I have missed so much, and was really looking forward to a big fat family Christmas! Got everything crossed that things will go well, and we are all able to see our loved ones

Yes, feel exactly the same. We're due to fly back next weekend from a country that came off the red list recently, we've got so much planned and now I'm really anxious that we're going to spend most of our month in the UK under restrictions. I'm happy to wear masks, isolate until our pcr test comes back (hopefully negative) but I really just want to have a nice normal time with our friends and family having not seen them since last November. Luckily we booked a month in the uk to factor in any potential quarantine if we do test positive on arrival, so the new rules on international arrivals doesn't really affect us. It's more the dread of our much needed trip home not being quite what we'd hoped. Last time we were in the uk we came out of quarantine the very day the rule of 6 came into force which made a lot of our trip home very difficult. Basically, we have terrible timing!

The channel Tunnel did not close at all, so worst case you can drive op? You are lucky to be just in France and not thousands of miles away.
I would be prepared for all eventualities.

We are going to Sweden on the 15th. After this, I am not booking any more winter trips, it seems to be me that this is going to be likely every year. I am going to stick to spring and summer visits going forward.

Shep everything will remain open here, there is no question of any kind of lockdown before Christmas, so please don't worry.

Apart from masks in shops and transport it will be life as normal. I am sure you will have a wonderful time, most places look beautiful this year, with many places putting in more effort and lots of Christmas markets popping up everywhere and ice rinks.

I think we're going to change our flights to 4 days earlier so we will definitely be out of quarantine if someone on our flight tests positive. But with that, extra hotel costs, PCR x 4, we're looking at almost a 1k of extra costs.

I'm also supposed to be in work meetings in London on the 16th and 17th. I'm not looking forward to being on tenterhooks for a T&T call for 10 days after we arrive either.

Covid-19 rates are so incredibly low where we are. It seems ridiculous. Am 100% more likely to get the new variant on the tube than bring it in. We were red listed for so long as well; I just don't want everything to be shit for Xmas.

Same here. We’re flying in less than two weeks and have (non-refundable as we needed a specific location with very few options) accommodation booked in the U.K. for a month, all our presents at my mother in law’s house, plans in place to see family and friends. It’s been two years.

But where we live has been very strict on borders, with residents trapped outside for 6+ months at the worst point of the pandemic. They’ve just started to relax things now and we have entry approval to return in January, but it would not be out of character for the Government here to slam the borders shut. We have two small children so not keen on hotel quarantine which has only recently been dropped here for most (not all) countries.

Going to keep watching the news, really hope this fades away, and make a call the day before if we need to cancel.

Switzerland have just put returners from the UK on 10 day quarantine.

Thanks @Fairylights25 I know we’re lucky, I have jitters not full on panic, but sad about the very expensive theatre tickets we can’t use due to the isolation thing.

And although the tunnel remained open last year, we were disinvited anyway as Boris’ “fear the foreigners” message got through very well to the family. Cries of “close the borders” are already on mumsnet.

It’s so sad reading through all of these comments.

Boris can go fuck himself after breaking the rules last Christmas.

We're hoping to go to Holland to see my family. I highly doubt it's going to happen now.

Yep, definitely got that sinking feeling again.

The tunnel did remain open, but there were some months last year where it was still effectively impossible to use it due either to level 4 UK restrictions meaning you couldn’t get to Folkestone, to the French lockdown prohibition on being more than a kilometre from your home, or with the couvre-feu making longer journeys impossible. I’m dreading similar. I repeatedly got stuck on the opposite side of an impassable border from my husband due to managing to have the worlds worst timing- every time I crossed a border, it closed behind me

Then you come on here an see the endless gleeful Close The Borders! posts from people who are either safely right next to all their loved ones or if they’re far away, somehow seem to glory in the masochism of never seeing them again in this lifetime!

I do get that we can’t just flounce about hither and yon in a pandemic, I really do. But there’s a human cost to that that some people seem to forget

Got my fingers crossed, and am revising my plans as best I can with what we know.

Good luck to all in the same boat 🍀

I'm joining in solidarity.

I was very lucky to get back to the UK recently and see my parents for a few hours, first time in 2 years . We are were planning to go back for a week over Christmas but when we were in the uk we could already feel that things were heading in the wrong direction and it probably wouldn't be possible.

I don't know about you but I feel guilty. Guilty that I'm not seeing my elderly parents, guilty my kids aren't making bonds with their grandparents, guilty that I didn't just take the whole summer off and go back (but that would never have been financially possible)

Yes. My step son lives in Spain with his mum and is due to be with us for a week over Xmas. If that falls through again my OH will be devastated. He's not seen him anywhere near as much as he would have ordinarily and it's killing him. Having a second xmas letdown would break his heart.

I have been abroad from the UK every summer for several months since the pandemic started.
But I have accepted that winter travel, crossing international boundaries, is going to be too restrictive for possibly years to come.
Christmas is a date in a calender, I have been forced to accept working around it.

We're due to drive to the UK on 17th from France to see my parents and family and we're bringing my parents in law to celebrate Christmas with us. We can afford the PCR tests although it adds a lot to the trip. It's the self-isolation until we get the results that worries me and of course the risk is they'll change the rules again. Last Christmas I was very ill ad being away from my parents was hard. This year we are real excited to all be together. I'm happy to find a thread with people in the same situation. Fingers crossed!