As a sheilder who was just beginning yo venture out, I have in light on the rising infection rate around the UK to go back into my hermitage to see out what Boris describes as a bumpy winter from the relative safety of my home.
This brought me to the ponderings, of Christmas or on my case the planned lack of it. For I have decided, that no presents or cards be exchanged...I dont want my nearest and dearests even to have venture into any shops to buy anything for me..I would rather their safety and a donation to The British Lung foundation as a gift
This then brings me to Christmas Day etc. I have decided to spend it at home alone...the rule of six and grown up children with sets of parents to please made that an easy decision.
The same goes for the New Year.
Do you think i am being over cautious in not wanting to mix, and also being a bit of a ba Christmas Humbug person?
Your honest answers please
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No you certainly aren't being a humbug, I think you are doing what's best for you and your family. Have a lovely day and take care 😊 Bernadette and Jack 🐕 xxxx
We are waiting to see what the situation is nearer Christmas. At the moment we are in favour of cancelling it, but having some kind of big celebration when it is all over.
You’re not a bah humbug at all ledge. Pete and I are classing this year as a right off and will celebrate when a vaccine becomes available. We'll get through Christmas just us and our son. Staying safe is very important.
Definitely a not a bah humbug person (I already am one of those!). I think that you should do whatever you feel comfortable with. It's very thoughtful of you to tell your family not to buy cards or gifts either but to donate to the BLF instead.
I am trying to decide what to do which is actually easy because I nearly always spend xmas day with a boxed dinner from M&S, and the soaps. On my own !
Last year I had my 2 closest friends, my daughter, her husband and grandaughter on Boxing Day and have floated this thought for this year. We have all been and are v careful. But it depends on how the numbers go on.
As for presents, cards and food. What doesn't come from the internet doesn't get bought.
The thought of not having to put up the tree etc is quite a relief.
No you definitely are not a bah humbug but at the roots I definitely am! 😆
I think it's perfectly ok to do Christmas as you wish. Keeping safe and still sending your love and good wishes to family and friends is fine. Take care.
I personally think Christmas is very overrated I haven’t bothered with decs for years, got fed up clearing stuff up after the cats had demolished them.
As a family we don’t get each other presents, we decided many years ago we would rather spend on our own families, there’s such an age gap between nephews and nieces never knew what to get. Mother being the exception.
If we do see each other at Christmas I take a Christmas cake, none of my sister in laws bake.
I have to do a traditional Christmas dinner other wise my son, now an adult, would not be happy. The cats have their Christmas dinner, I promise not to tell Scruffs.
So, no I think your being very sensible, once all this stuff is over is the time to have fun and party.
This is an interesting topic for me as I’m a Christian so Christmas for me& my family is really important. I love Christmas and we do presents & decs etc but ultimately for us Christmas for me is about the birth of Christ and the amazing celebration of His life and saving grace. Christmas without Christ just leaves m&s 😢...which no wonder makes the world wanna be humbugs!
I’ve a feeling someone at some point will wanna have a go at me on here for expressing a ‘religious’ view, but I hope you guys, my friends on here know me well enough that I’m just saying how it is for me.
And I hope that all of you, whatever situation you find yourselves in, that it’ll be a time when your hearts are filled with an amazing peace!
Thanks Izb! I was so worried I forgot to actually answer the question 😂😂😂
..I’m not sure what we’ll do...I think we will probably see my sister, bro-in-law and my 10 year old nephew ( that’s our bubble of 6) Or we might meet out in the forest or something in the open air for a Boxing Day wall or something.
Well Madonbrew...yes the true meaning of Christmas is very easily lost in this day and age, but its ability to be something special in the darkest time of year is still there. As too its ability for bringing out goodwill if only for a fleeting few moments. You enjoy every moment that this strange Christmas will bring whatever you do x
To me too Christ birth is the reason we celebrate Christmas. I love the carols being sung visiting the crib on Xmas morning. I haven’t been to mass since lockdown due to shielding and the thought of being indoors with lots of people panics me. I’m hoping to celebrate Christmas with my Husband, daughter her new baby, my only grandchild and son in law. My daughter is suffering with awful PND after a stressful pregnancy and horrific birth. I’m hoping that will be possible for her and my mental state to. Everyone is in titled to their own beliefs, safety and wishes on how the celebrate Christmas m. Whatever everyone decides I wish it’ll be a good one for you all and 2021 will be a good one with a vaccine for us all.
Although my arrangement is with 2 others in a safe pub in a village for Christmas day that is if we are not in complete lockdown and everyone is well.
The pub dining is very good, very spacious between tables and they bring food on a tray and ask customers to take the plates from the tray themselves, they of course wear gloves and masks. I always take anti bac wipes even though the tables are of course sanitised after every use.
I'm still going to have good food stocks though just in case
It sounds like you are doing what you feel comfortable with. Wich makes perfect sence. You can still phone or zoom family and friends that you want to wish happy Christmas to. I think if you are happy then its the right thing to do 🎅
Definitely not. My sister contacted me yesterday to check that I’ve had my flu jab and warned me to stay safe because her ward is starting to fill up with covid patients. They are dreading the winter pressures and are very concerned about patients who get a combination of covid and the flu. My son also contacted me to say that his icu friend has told him that people are being ventilated with it with cases rising.
Whatever you can do to stay well and away from this terrible virus is perfectly justified 😃
I have a big birthday this month and was going to have a party, but now I doubt I will do much at all as I have also been a shielder so being very cautious.
Covid 👿👹is bah humbug as it’s intent on spoiling everyone’s plans, but the main thing has to be that we get out of this alive and at least as healthy as we were pre-Covid!!👍
I will be doing what I can to enjoy Christmas on my own as I have gone back into isolation. I will Skype with family and friends and wish for a vaccine asap. I have a big birthday in January but that will be on hold until we are free to mingle again. Stay safe and well everyone x
I have had to cancel a lot this year,including a big birthday and family get together. We are a big family ( I have five adult children,plus partners,12 grandchildren,and 8 great grand children. Add everyone's partners,my sister, cousins you get the picture! Christmas is usually a massive meeting up with several households hosting.Not this year! I will put my tree up ,I love sitting at night with all the lights twinkling and the sparkle of decorations and tinsel. One of my neighbours has got one up already to cheer herself up!😀 Hope the TV is good!!
I think we all have to do what is best for each of us. I spent Xmas on my own last year due to having a shoulder op and looks like I will be doing the same again this year. I dont want to chance a 3 1/2 hour train journey to Cardiff so will make the most of what I have, it is after all only 2 days. I miss my family something awful and have spent Xmas with them every year for the last 17 years, but there is facetime so I can at least see them x
Hi, I think u r being very sensible - pity a lot of people wont follow you in yr decision - I have a very large family & my birthday is drawing near so I'll possibly ask them to not come or make 2mtr markers down the pavement! Haha. Well done you
It was our turn to go to our daughter's in Cumbria this year. We live in Sussex. She has already told us that they are having Christmas on their own this year due to the number of towns near them that are already in lockdown and she doesn't want anyone driving the length of the country with stops at service stations where bugs might be passed on. Decision made for us there, and we are grateful for it!
Our son and family live locally but it's their turn to go to his wife's family in Germany this year. They don't know what's happening there, so we may have an invite to go to their home for Christmas day, or they may pop over here and stand in the garden to wish us a merry Christmas. Or, they may go to Germany as originally planned, depending on the situation at the time.
Whatever happens, I will get food in the freezer so that we can have some sort of Christmas dinner. We will do presents, but only what we can get from the internet.
I'm putting a box of silly bits together to send up to our grandchildren in Cumbria so that we are there in spirit. I think the highlight of the day will probably be the 'Fart Whistle'. (They are at that age!!!).
I'm not holding out much hope for Christmas this year, though, as I think we'll probably all be in lockdown by then. It's not so bad when you know the whole country is in the same boat.
If we were all adults, I think I would be inclined to do the same as you and not do presents at all. I like the idea of the donation. However, the grandchildren will all be expecting something and I love to see their faces when they open up their gifts, so will still do it but, as I've already said, everything will be off the internet this year.
I really don't think you are being a Bah Humbug person! I think your plans are very sensible. If it feels like the right thing for you then it doesn't really matter what anyone else thinks. A few years ago I was feeling so unwell that I had no enthusiasm for Christmas and said to my husband I would be quite happy to have a quiet Christmas at home and not bother with all the fuss. He wouldn't hear of it and up went the tree and decorations, so I thought I should make an effort. We went to our son's and I felt dreadful. I should have insisted on staying at home!
Do what you think is the right thing for you and enjoy your day the best way you can.
As Izb1 says, it’s only 2 days. It’s a lots of fuss on the run up to Christmas, whipped up by the media, followed by the stress of shopping and catering worries. I think I’ll have to put up with not seeing my family, in order to stay safe. We’ll celebrate when it’s all over, if ever!
Do what makes you feel comfortable we are all going to die so whats the difference
LOL IME JOKING
Absolutely not. We will spend our Christmas Day together alone, far from family but no doubt connected by Zoom. I am completely reconciled to this now. The grandchildren will get their presents, all bought on line. The only remaining question is what my husband and I will eat.
No I think you are doing the right thing, for both yourself and your family.
I am doing the same thing and it is not easy.
I have been ben invited to re-join my choir to sing the Messiah, and have to reply today as we have more singers than seats with social distancing.
It is with a very heavy heart I am going to decline. It is on the outskirts of Oxford where covid positives are rising fast and it is a city under watch by the government, and only one university has yet returned. The larger number of Oxford students will be entering this week and next I believe.
My son and I have already agreed that we do not meet for Christmas and this will be the first time ever.
I am clinically extreme and now don't think there is a choice.
No you are not, but being in the same situation of the prospect of spending yet more months shielding and mainly alone is one I dread. no doubt we will survive.
You sound very sensible to me. We aren’t planning on having Xmas except for the two of us. ( we live together anyway). I’ll send money to the grandchildren and our family.
Everyone has to just do what they feel is best. Xmas day is just a day, and Xmas is so commercial these days . One year when I was very very skint I made presents, small, personal - but these strange days it’s also the postal and delivery staff to be considered. We have not been able to get to England to see family for well over a year . FaceTime is brilliant - Facebook messenger video, WhatsApp video - where would we be without the internet ! It’s keeping lots of us sane and in touch and able to see if not hug our nearest and dearest.
Next year will be better - being Polyanna and playing the glad game !!
I love Christmas and am sad that some of you will be alone, but better safe than sorry. A few years ago I was in hospital over Christmas, miserable. My daughter 'did' Christmas at Easter, as a surprise. It was wonderful with gifts and crackers, lights and decorations. We can celebrate a special time any time when we know we and our loved ones are safe. Just be safe.🙂
Hi I totally understand you. I haven’t been out of my home since the beginning of December last year this was nothing to do with the virus. I just panic if I have to go out as I’m so afraid of not being able to breath. Last Christmas I stayed at home, my son who lives up the road and is my career brought me a Christmas dinner. I’m used to being on my own and have come to accept it. I hope this helps a little. Barbs x
A wise friend told me "It's just another day with tinsel " when i felt glum about not being able to have a normal Christmas a few yrs ago. So do what's right for you
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