Christmas isn’t cancelled by Covid - but it shouldn’t be the same: Jayne Dowle

I’m sorry to have to break it to him, but a ‘normal Christmas’ for most folk is not a snowflake-tinged mash-up of The Holiday (Jude Law, Cameron Diaz, Kate Winslet and Jack Black get romantic in a needlessly complex plot) and Love Actually, in which Hugh Grant as Prime Minister falls in love with Natalie, a member of his household staff, played by a perky Martine McCutcheon. In my experience it’s more like a collision course of Coronation Street, Emmerdale and EastEnders (adjust for taste and personal circumstances) with a few laughs and high drama thrown in.

Love Actually kicks off with a voiceover from Prime Minister David commenting that whenever he gets gloomy about the state of the world he thinks about the arrivals lounge at Heathrow airport, and all the people waiting to welcome loved ones from afar. He’d find that arrivals lounge pretty empty this year. In fact, he’d be pushed to find a place open to buy a coffee. There will be plenty of people separated from ‘loved ones’ this Christmas - and sadly, plenty of permanently empty chairs, places laid in memory of those who have lost their lives, and not just to Covid-19.

This idea that if we follow the rules we will somehow - by the power of collective thought perhaps - wish away the coronavirus for Christmas like a child wishes on a star for decent presents is a complete fantasy. Medical and scientific experts are lining up to tell him so, but Mr Johnson appears deaf to everything but the sound of sleigh-bells. We’ll see what he comes up with this week, when an announcement on the ‘rules’ for Christmas is expected.

He should however stop gibbering about normality and take on board the considered opinions of those rather more sober-minded. Katherine Henderson, president of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine, says that Christmas should be treated as just another ‘date in the month’ this year, adding: “If Covid cases become hospital cases and then sadly go on to become deaths, we will regret a Christmas season that gave Granny Covid for Christmas.”

Yes, sadly, we will. Like many, I’ve exercised equal measures of caution and cynicism since March. In the first peak of the pandemic, I knew hardly anyone who had contracted coronavirus. Perhaps this was because widespread testing was not in place then - who knows? What I do know is that since October I’ve seen many friends, family and acquaintances fall ill; one close friend lost her dad with coronavirus as an underlying factor and my teenage daughter had to self-isolate for a week because her classmate tested positive. In the first lockdown my husband and I visited our elderly parents regularly and did their shopping. We would sit for a while and chat in their gardens, or near an open door. This time around, we’re still doing the shopping and popping round, but we haven’t set foot across their thresholds since Barnsley went into Tier 3 restrictions at the end of October. Last week we stood outside with a cake and sang happy 77th birthday to mum from the path.

I know - or at least I think I know – that we could officially bring them all into a support bubble, but the risk still seems too great. My dad has COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease) and shielded for months, my mother-in-law has complex health needs and her partner suffers from skin cancer.

I still hate wearing a mask and I still resent the rules and the sanctimonious posturing on all sides, but I put the lives of my family above every inconvenience, restriction and assault on my reasoning. It’s quite simple really.

I don’t want to sacrifice my parents and in-laws all for one day - or possibly five, or three - of close contact in a confined space.

The last time I wrote about this, I said that we should refrain from all mention of the ‘C’ word until at least the beginning of next month. However, I’ve broken my own edict because we can’t let this government sleepwalk into yet another disaster without pointing out the obvious flaws in the plan.

Surely we haven’t lost the ability to think for ourselves and judge individual risk? We should all use some common sense and accept that this year, Christmas, as Ms Henderson says, is just another day on the calendar. There are ways around bridging distance and separation and sharing gifts and food. It’s not the end of the world. Yet.

And perhaps we might also sit quietly and think about what this day really means. For Christians at least, it’s not about planning the biggest family get-together, buying the most extravagant gifts or decorating the tallest tree, it’s about celebrating a series of selfless acts. I suggest that we all, in our own non- denominational way, follow that star instead of dancing to the insistent tune of those dangerous sleigh-bells.

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