Covid doesn't know it's Christmas so why not put off the celebrations till Easter? – Ian Swanson

By now, the festive activities would normally be well underway - visitors flocking to the Christmas Market in Princes Street Gardens, office nights-out being booked, carol singers taking to the streets.

The Christmas Market would normally be in full swing (Picture: Ian Rutherford)

Christmas is obviously going to be a bit different this year thanks to the coronavirus. But the UK and Scottish governments have agreed to lift many of the current Covid restrictions for five days over Christmas weekend to allow family get-togethers. For many people, seeing children or parents or grandparents is the cornerstone of Christmas and celebrating the season without these reunions would be a sacrifice too far.

So the go-ahead for travel around the country and the permission to form three-household Christmas bubbles is for them a most welcome concession after months of living under much tougher restrictions.

‘We must all be careful’

But the news from the politicians is not all glad tidings. Indeed it's rather a mixed message.

The various governments have, for once, managed to agree on a united four-nations approach, so the details of the Christmas relaxation are at least consistent across the UK. But while getting together is permitted, it is not being recommended.

Nicola Sturgeon urges people only to meet up with family members in other households if necessary. “The virus is not going to take Christmas off,” she warns.

And even Boris Johnson, usually determined to be as upbeat and enthusiastic as possible, seems to have reservations about it. “We can't afford to throw caution to the wind,” he said. “The virus doesn't know it's Christmas and we must all be careful.”

It’s true. Covid is still claiming lives and experts warn the festive easing of the restrictions will inevitably mean more spread of the virus and more deaths.

Truce idea ridiculed

At the end of October, the Roman Catholic Bishop of Paisley John Keenan proposed a 24-hour lifting of the restrictions on gatherings and celebrations on Christmas Day and compared the idea to the Christmas Day truce during the First World War – “a break in the war on Covid, just like the pause on the Western Front in 1914, when the British and German troops laid down their guns and met in no man's land to celebrate Christmas”.

He said such a move would bring “hope and happiness – a moment of joy in the midst of so much despair”.

But, of course, it’s not as if the virus was going to agree to a truce – and the bishop’s suggestion was widely ridiculed. However, that’s effectively what the governments have now agreed to – and not just for 24 hours.

The politicians and their advisers are no doubt conscious that if they had not lifted restrictions, many people would probably have ignored them over the festive period in any case and they would have been impossible to enforce.

The official relaxation of the rules at least sets some parameters which people might observe. Otherwise, flouting the rules could easily have stretched beyond five days and taken in more than three households, increasing the risk of spread even further.

Listening to their mixed messages, it’s easy to suspect the easing of the restrictions goes against the governments’ best instincts. With widespread vaccination just around corner, they must be hoping many people will decide it’s worth postponing their family reunions and perhaps celebrating Christmas at Easter.

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