The result is almost identical across parties and demographics. Rather surprisingly, older voters were shown to prefer a Christmas lockdown: the generation for who this relaxation can be argued as mostly catering towards. Allowing children to see their grandparents and, in some cases, residents of care homes to spend time with family is lovely, but where greater groups are now allowed to mix, care home residents over the age of 65 are not allowed to see a single familiar face in the flesh. Surely the main issue is that no one should have to spend Christmas alone and that is why the creation of support bubbles is fundamental. There are other Christmases to come for most of us, but for Dementia or Alzheimer suffers being kept inside and who struggle to interact online, there might not be. Rather than the three household rule, why can’t, for these five days, everyone be granted some contact, albeit in smaller groups? This isn’t being allowed “because of the risks”, but with scientists naming a typical Christmas gathering at home as the type of environment where infections can spread, I’d say this entire operation is in the name of overlooking risk. 

Christmas this year is the dangling carrot before we are hit with the stick of lockdown 3.0 – and don’t forget about Brexit and the bigger picture of Britain in the midst of a breakdown of its ‘United Kingdom’. This increasing division between the north and south, young and old, upper-middle and lower classes is not the most festive one, so, when in a crisis, why not throw in a few days of ignorant bliss? Except, this isn’t the first time the government has teased us with a sense of ‘normality’. Remember pubs? Remember summer holidays abroad, sit down gigs, Eat Out to Help Out? That was the beginning of the end, or so we thought, and look where we are now. If Boris Johnson and his advisers think that they can relax more rules, only to enforce even tighter ones in the New Year, then they have learned nothing from last time. Watching the cabinet squirm and fluster over trying to resume some sort of order come the 28th December might be the best Christmas present worth waiting for if it wasn’t for the staggering number of lives at stake.

In this desperate attempt to ‘save Christmas’ – a Christian or, arguably, now a Capitalist holiday for many – we also cannot forget how nothing so drastic was made in an effort to save Eid or Rosh Hashanah. Mariam Khan rightly asks us to “Imagine Christmas Eve, the food shop is done, the presents wrapped under the tree, families have come together or are in the process, excitement is bubbling over and then the Government announces two hours before Christmas Day that families can no longer come together.” This is exactly what happened the night before Eid and there is still no explanation or justification for the lateness of this notice. Restrictions were re-imposed in West Yorkshire, Greater Manchester and East Lancashire, with the greatest percentage of Muslims in England living in the north-west and Yorkshire. The rule of six was not revisited or relaxed for the Jewish community either, with many of their traditions over the three-week period of the Days of Awe becoming impossible under the circumstances.