... a Brief History
Today, December 19th, comes the news that the five days will be shortened to Christmas Day only. Christmas is effectively cancelled. The number of households remains at two. (Moreover, the December 28th lockdown 3 is brought forward, after close of business tonight).
It was a little ironic this evening that at the very time of both the English prime and Welsh first ministerial announcements we were following retail advice by shopping early for Christmas. Amid the various bits and pieces, we purchased a thick 2.2lb £15-reduced-to£12 side of Norwegian salmon which is now useless. Not only that, as Christmas Day itself approaches, Tesco will no doubt have a surfeit of the stuff which it will be forced to sell off at ridiculously low prices. Ours will be sliced up and placed in the freezer, where we could've bought cheaper and still frozen it.
Before the local health protection zone measures and especially lockdown 2, we were promised that the harsh measures taken would allow us a relatively normal Christmas. Since then, infections and hospital admissions are both rising ahead of our worst fears. The English prime minister had nevertheless previously been highly optimistic about Christmas. How things change.
On November 24th, the English prime minister announced a UK-wide version of Christmas that would allow three families to meet & mix, for up to five day travel window between December 23rd and 27th. In Wales, our government piled in.
Personally and ideally, we could do with five meeting up but was hoping to get away with four. The family negotiations, permutations & combinations began. In an added pressure, one household is working up to 24th and this would've placed a constraint on their ability to socialise.
On December 16th, the Welsh government reduces the number of families from three to two, again over the same five days. (There was also an announcement on an open-ended lockdown 3 (alter level 4) in Wales from December 28th).
That's awkward. More family conversations ensue. There's a danger that some will feel aggrieved. On December 18th, after tough negotiations, we're down to one other family joining us and although this disappoints some (and us), we're relieved we can salvage some sort of family gathering.
Plenty of chatter on Facebook about the cancellation of Christmas, including this from a Dinbych businessman known for his work in Rhuthun/Ruthin. Not only was his first post deleted, so was this second, one in extraordinarily poor taste. As Gail Honeyman said, 'Obscenity is the distinguishing hallmark of a sadly limited vocabulary'
Given the distance involved, our one remaining family can no longer make it (and the remainder already have new plans). It's too far to travel. It would involve a total of eight hours of journeying for four to six hours of celebration. Not practical. No alcohol either! So, that's Christmas finished this year.
The epidemiological Grinch has stolen Christmas. Or should that be stollen Christmas?
Meanwhile, at least three businesses stayed open tonight to midnight. One was the barber Hasham, another the Candy Cabin and the third Cefi. Nine of these are allowed to open after this evening. At about 9 p.m., with the town all but deserted save for a dog walker, Hasham was doing reasonably well, with a couple of people waiting in the brightly lit shop for their turn. Cefi had one customer within. Lights blazing out of the Candy Shack failed to attract anyone. No doubt both Candy Shack and Cefi have perishable & seasonal chocolate stock for Christmas. Other than that, there were no mass re-openings and consequent queuing seen in bigger towns.
The town was as well lit as ever, surpassing previous years, but there were few to enjoy it. When traders left their presmises this afternoon, they were predicting a return on Monday morning. It was as if we had endured a mass migration with no time to turn out the lights. An 'On the Beach' moment.
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Coronavirus