A Christmas like no other


For most people, Christmas is a time for friends and family. Perhaps your ideal Xmas is a coming-together of the entire clan where everyone from doddery seniors to over-excited toddlers swarm into your home for a chaotic festive feast. Or perhaps you prefer a more nuclear set-up where your partner and children regroup for a bonding catch-up. 

 

A Christmas Day outing to the pub is important to some (naming no names) while others like to splash out on a celebratory restaurant meal. And there are many who prefer to avoid the festivities altogether, heading for somewhere like Vietnam or Thailand where the holiday isn’t marked at all.

 

Everyone’s Christmas is different. This one wasn’t.

 

We were all in the same boat this Christmas. Or rather we weren’t, since that would be breaking the social-distancing rules. Instead we were huddled together in tiny groups in very small boats, going nowhere.

 

We were allowed out for walks with one other person at a time – but that was about it. Wild. The restaurants were closed, the pubs were closed, we weren’t allowed out of our local area and we couldn’t have anyone to stay. And we weren’t even able to meet up with anyone outdoors unless we happened to be walking at the time. Brian and I had arranged to have drinks on the common with a neighbouring family as a desperate Xmas-salvaging measure, but even that had to be downgraded to a Zoom call. 

 

The late changes in the rules meant that some people’s food cupboards were empty because they’d been expecting to stay with family, while others' were filled to capacity with provisions for a big family get-together - one they were no longer allowed to hold. Disappointment was the prevailing emotion for an awful lot of us.

 

Nothing was going to prevent Robbie from coming home to see us, however. So the three of us remained locked down together, making the most of things and working our way through the booze we’d bought for the seven who might otherwise have been here.

 

And Robbie played a blinder with his Christmas present to Brian and I - a completely useless gift that we nonetheless loved. He gave us two life-sized cardboard cut-outs, one of Ben and the other of Josie These provided us with many a photo opportunity plus a great deal of hilarity and they also helped us to bond with the others over Zoom. 

 

The cut-outs were a brilliant addition to our quiet, weird Christmas. And they are now taking up space in Robbie’s bedroom and making us jump whenever we come across them unawares. Sometimes I hear Brian talking to them. What on earth have we come to?

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