What about the male half of the population?
24 hour garage in the way back from the pub on Christmas Eve?
I wonder what the British Muslim community think about all the talk about relaxing rules for Christma? Eid was cancelled on the morning of Eid with the first lockdown
Fancy hazarding a guess as to how strictly observed that particular lockdown was?
I imagine that’s very much in the governments thinking
In a restaurant you sit distanced apart in smaller groups, at home you sit closer together.
I've eaten out once this year (against my better judgement). There was another group sat 6" behind my chair and the 4 of us were sat round a tiny table. Resteraunt was packed for lunch.
Compared to that, my wife an I having both sets of parents over for lunch does not feel much riskier. If anything it would be safer.
Grandma is for life not just for christmas.
Virtually none of us believe in the baby jesus and his birthday is highly unlikely to have been in December so I'm sure we could put off our annual celebration of consumption and gluttony until June if we really wanted to.
Christmas in the summer and pretend we are Aussies for the year - it would be great.
Oh, let’s make no mistake. No matter what happens, I will be eating turkey.
Would like to say the same but apparently we're going to be have a frigging cockerel 😂
Other than that, there'll be some relief to not have to do the usual christmas ferrying about, but also disappointing as the boys probably won't get to see their nephew.
If you have Xmas cards to post, get them sent asap, Royal Mail have not planned this Covid Xmas any differently than a normal one. Depots are already getting to a point where some posties are being told to just take Tracked and Special Delivery parcels, because they don’t have space or time to take the letters.
As a postie in NW England I'd echo this. It's an absolute shambles.
Being brutal, see your family at Christmas, say goodbye to some of them in january.
Not really worth it is it?
Allowing it to go ahead is nuts, the government should move Christmas to February/March and let the lockdown do its job and bring down the R rate. It's got F all to do with the religious festival these days, so move the bank holidays to a better time.
I couldn't give a hoot about christmas.
It's ok to get together at Xmas.
CoVid is a Christian virus and believes in Santa Claus.
Any spike in infections and deaths in January will be purely the fault of that pesky EU for not giving us a good Brexit deal.
Not bothered about Christmas.
But I fully intend to watch chaos, desolation and despair sweep across our once proud nation with as many of my family I can get together on the 1st of January.
Also I will need the children around to help me with laying out the barbed wire.
From an Australian perspective
Over east had it rough but it seems to be better now. Borders were opened and floods of people tried to get home. Now seems that south australia is being hit and they're in lockdown now. Which leads me to believe that it's slowly creeping over here to WA.
I think this year Christmas is going to be tough for many people (not less for us who work in front line jobs). It's warming up and summer is approaching. I really don't know how this all pans out, or for how long. It's quite surreal.
I also find it odd that we don't hear much about China. Have they nailed it? Did they get a second / third wave when Wuhan's border opened? I don't know anyone who has had "it" it's all "my friends nan had it" kind of thing. But as a T1 diabetic and a health care worker I'm not sure about anything. You tend to expect things kicking off when emails from the executives and senior management start flying around. We've just had an email about PPE and donning/doffing techniques, not rocking up to work with any symptoms at all and reminders that if we have no leave left we can have up to 2 weeks of full pay Covid leave.
I've put in for 2 weeks leave over Christmas but will see if it's approved.
How are you guys bearing up over there?
The UK is a weird limbo. Its apparently lockdown but we used to have stricter trading laws for Sundays than the restrictions this lockdown has brought, so whether it's going to have any effect who knows.
For me personally I would quite like a full lockdown for Christmas. Saves the awkward discussion of whether you should or shouldn't see people.
For me personally I would quite like a full lockdown for Christmas. Saves the awkward discussion of whether you should or shouldn’t see people.
Yeah, my mum is very vulnerable, she will want to come and see us if she is allowed.
Might have already been said on page 1 but...
Christmas is untouchable, but Eid and Diwali were fair game?
We see you. Get in the sea.
Christmas is untouchable, but Eid and Diwali were fair game?
We see you. Get in the sea
But as has also been said, Christmas isn't a religious celebration these days for many (most?) people in the UK. I'm an atheist, I believe in Santa Claus as much as I believe in God. Christmas is a defined holiday in the UK with a long tradition (outside of the religious aspects), Eid and Diwali aren't the same.
Given religion isn't going to be banned any time soon (unfortunately) I'm all for people celebrating their own ghost stories in whatever way they want (as long as it doesn't harm others) but mass gatherings (beyond immediate family) should still be avoided (this applies over Christmas to - I would be against packed churches as well, even if the government did relax rules over Christmas).
But as has also been said, Christmas isn’t a religious celebration these days for many (most?) people in the UK.
But, really is sorta is no matter how you dress it up its about celebrating the birth of christ that sound pretty religious to me. Its a religious holiday. I feel like if you won't give people a break for Eid and Diwali then don't do it for Xmas. I say this as someone how has family in wales and has seen them twice this year.
Christmas is untouchable, but Eid and Diwali were fair game?
A fair point, though Jesus is an important prophet in other religions, and my friends and colleagues of all faiths seem to enjoy the mid winter celebration.
I'm happy for it to be cancelled, maybe just two households mixing.
I'd be happy to stay in this 'lockdown', but it's not about me as others have said. Let them eat their cake for a day, it doesn't need any more than a day, aye we'll pay for it, hey ho.
Talk of Eid and Diwali is whataboutery tbh, correct me if I'm wrong, but those festivals fell when cases were significantly rising, Christmas amnesty will only happen if we're on a downward trend.
You can argue faith, religion, whatever you want, even use it as agenda to racist government bash, but Xmas is a huge event in the UK, something that can't be said about the other two.
Covid will keep spreading if the rules are relaxed over Christmas. If people during war times could cope hundreds of miles from home and stuck out in fields then I'm sure you could we will be fine at home on a sofa.
Sure, it would be nice to spend it with family but the reality is, covid will keep spreading if people keep spreading.
Christmas amnesty
Oh, for ****s sake.
If people during war times could cope hundreds of miles from home and stuck out in fields then I’m sure you could we will be fine at home on a sofa.
Please, please stop these comparisons with The War. You weren’t there so have no idea.
Anyway, extend lockdown until the end of December and give us a good start into 2021. Allowing a pass for Christmas is just ridiculous.
Oh, for **** sake
Aye, it makes me cringe too, sorry.
Winterfest amnesty.
Xmas is a
hugebigger event in the UK,
Interesting listening to someone who lived through the war the other day on the radio. She said that at least in the war you could go round to your neighbours, pubs, cinemas and dance halls were open, see friends and family with no restrictions. It's that loss of close human interaction that she finds harder now.
Its a religious holiday. I feel like if you won’t give people a break for Eid and Diwali then don’t do it for Xmas
FFS they are NOT the same. Christmas/Boxing Day are public holidays in the UK, are you going to argue every religious celebration should have a recognised UK public holiday as well? Easter/Christmas may derive from Christian religious celebrations but they are celebrated by tens of millions of people, for non-religious reasons, in the UK these days. It is not the same for other religious celebrations from other faiths.
Christmas amnesty
Anyone who wants to take part in a Christmas Amnesty should be made to crawl through barbed wire and play football in knee deep mud with strangers whilst wearing a woollen greatcoat and hobnail boots.
If you're going to participate, then fully commit.
FFS they are NOT the same. Christmas/Boxing Day are public holidays in the UK, are you going to argue every religious celebration should have a recognised UK public holiday as well?
Chill out, who put a quid in you. Ever think they are public holidays because we are traditionally a christian country? Literal definition from google "the annual Christian festival celebrating Christ's birth, held on 25 December in the Western Church." You can subvert the definition or meaning of them all you want and say they are celebrated by people of all faiths, religious and non religious and loads of different reasons, but fact is they are religious holidays. I would be more than happy to celebrate Eid and Diwali with my friends simply for the food! Also if recognising every religious celebration in the uk gets me some extra free days off work im all for that.
https://www.livescience.com/25779-christmas-traditions-history-paganism.html
Goes a bit deeper than just be a celebration of a sky faeries birthday.
There's probably an argument to be made that Eid is big enough in the UK to make employers give that time off on a compulsory basis (if not an emergency worker etc).
I also find it odd that we don’t hear much about China. Have they nailed it? Did they get a second / third wave when Wuhan’s border opened?
I get the impression that the parts of our media who enjoy that symbiotic relationship with the Tories would like us to think that they're lying and China is still riddled with Covid, or in some extreme cases they created it in a lab and issued out the cure / vaccine once it had spread to the world.
I think the truth is with their huge resources and SARS fresh in their mind they were able to accept inconvenient truths that most Western Leaders couldn't.
The right solutions always seemed too expensive and too hard for us so at every stage we decided to half-arse it and hope for the best, and the best never came. We could have closed the boarders and locked down in Feb, but that was too hard. We could have locked down in early March, but it seemed a better idea to just ask everyone to be careful. We could have kept the borders closed in August, but again, everyone wants their holibobs yeah? We could have forced Unis to stay closed in Sept, but it's a basic human right to be a Fresher yeah? We squandered every opportunity for short-term gain, and it's cost us more every time.
Deep down some people like to think Britain is somehow more special than other countries because of a rose tinted view of the past, think it'll all just work out in the end, because it always has in the past, even when it hasn't.
We're doing it now, Boris and Sunak are looking at 3 graphs. 1 showing the huge lose in GDP and Jobs if we don't open to shops to let everyone spend a months salary on consumer crap, another showing the loss in voters next election if they don't let everyone get together during a deadly pandemic and a 3rd showing the numbers of extra hospital admissions and deaths if they do.
The hard option would be tell the Country that a bit of tinsel and some quality street with your extended family isn't worth the death toll, Xmas is off this year. Then announce a raft of financial support to safeguard jobs, all of them, buy every dose of viable vaccine they can lay their hands on and declare a special 4 day weekend in June with BHs on the Friday and Monday, say "no promises, but we're going to have a party" and then ask The Queen to recite the first line of Peter Fonda's line in the Loaded by Primal Scream, and fade out to 'Higher and Higher' by Jackie Wilson
They'll take the 'easy' option, they'll go for a week-long 'amnesty' like the Virus is going to come and play football with us in no-mans-land and other faux nostalgic toss He'll make sure to let us know it's our fault if it all goes wrong, and then wash his hands of it in Jan when we're burying an extra 1000 people a day in the cold, hard earth. It'll help divert the headlines away from the lorry parks in Kent and an economy in free-fall.
If you’re going to participate, then fully commit.
Christmas in Wishy sounds guid.
Will have to see if I can get the family to do a big Teams/Zoom call and stick the laptop at the end of the table !.
I'm not willing to have many weeks of further restrictions just to see my family for a few days. Stuff that.
But that will happen. Sick and tired of restrictions, when other folk aren't following the rules, hence more restrictions for everyone.
Christmas in Wishy sounds guid.
It is.
It's the 364 days before it getting shot at and having to eat rats that's the problem.
And the trenchfoot....
....only if you're lucky enough to have the luxury of a trench.
Christmas in Wishy sounds guid
Aye,jist mind an pit a mask on in thi grotto 😉
...stuck at home over eating and over drinking, too much internet shopping, tv and screentime, getting bored with family. Having got this far with lockdown, christmas doesn't scare me.
Deep down some people like to think Britain is somehow more special than other countries because of a rose tinted view of the past, think it’ll all just work out in the end, because it always has in the past, even when it hasn’t.
This 100%. We (generally speaking) are an extremely arrogant country years of the "great" british empire have given us a level of self important no other nation seems to have.
they’ll go for a week-long ‘amnesty’ like the Virus is going to come and play football with us in no-mans-land and other faux nostalgic toss He’ll make sure to let us know it’s our fault if it all goes wrong,
And this! Every step of the way the gov' have done this. But its hardly a surprise we have a bunch of people in charge who have never had to take account for a single action for as long as they have lived.
Chill out, who put a quid in you. Ever think they are public holidays because we are traditionally a christian country?
But the whole point is that's no longer relevant as the celebration of Christmas in the UK has long since transcended it's origins. Therefore to compare it directly (when determining any special allowances for it) with other celebrations that are still very much tied to their religion is non-sensical.
Christmas in the UK has long since transcended it’s origins.
Its origins being some pagan midwinter get together a religious festival got plonked on top of.
But the whole point is that’s no longer relevant as the celebration of Christmas in the UK has long since transcended it’s origins.
No longer relevant to who? im pretty sure the people that go church on xmas eve/day still care that its part of a religious celebration or has it "transcended it’s origins" for devout christians too? If you want to deny basic facts thats cool we can no longer have a debate.
No longer relevant to who? im pretty sure the people that go church on xmas eve/day still care that its part of a religious celebration or has it “transcended it’s origins” for devout christians too? If you want to deny basic facts thats cool we can no longer have a debate.
My Gran used to be a church goer and I sometimes used to chum her at xmas - The place was only ever 1/3 occupied at very, very most.
The proportion of the population who go to church, even at xmas as tiny.
I'm never going to google "chumming my gran"!!!
We've decided to have Christmas on 28 Dec with us (2+2) and my mum. That gives 10 days post school break up for the kids to disinfect themselves, my wife is wfh and I'm not working at the moment.
Nothing in life is risk free, and she really wants to do something as she lives alone.
The only way to have granny round, is to self isolate as a family (having done any supermarket shopping 2 weeks before hand), granny self isolates also.
You sit in a house with all windows open and wearing masks. All 2 m apart. No hugging or bodily contact at all. Then there's the logistics of getting granny to and from the Christmas venue of choice. Every receptacle, piece of cutlery and crockery being washed and sanitised to within a millimetre of it's life.
Or just do what our neighbours have been doing through all our lock down (we're in the Northwest where there's only been a couple of weeks off in the summer) and just ignore every rule, regulation or caring for the nhs, carry on as usual and be as inconsiderate and selfish as possible.
