I wish to every Sim HQ member, to their families, to their friends, a SAFE Christmas and New Year.

2020 was a bad year for everyone on earth. Now that vaccines coming, maybe people can go back to work, school, restaurants, movies, sports, concerts, gathering. No more wearing mask and social distancing.

Christmas now cancelled in England.
New tier 4 introduced in London where my youngest daughter lives. Stay at home;no non-essential-travel at all, is the new ruling just announced due to new strain of the 'Rona in the South East of the nation. She and my other 2 children were going to my eldest daughter in Devon for Chrimble Jollies as we are shielding due to my wife's pending open-heart surgery, which she desperately needs but likely to be postponed.

With the benefit of hindsight, the government shouldn't of proposed a holiday period relaxation of restrictions which prompted families to make optimistic plans to meet up; now dashed.

It's going to be a quiet Christmas day and I'm not complaining. Just 3 of us (usually 7+). We'll be using Zoom to say hello to various family members.

I predict a good turkey dinner, a few G&T's and an afternoon nap. Bliss.

I certainly wasn't oblivious to the upsides of doing Thanksgiving with only my parents, siblings, and 2 nephews - we'd never done that before, for any holiday. Far more quality time with each other than when we have 35+ people gathered. Way less hectic, way less work.

Christmas will be the same this year, and for just ONE year I'm looking at this as a refreshing change of pace. Now if we have to do it this way again next year though I will be irritated...

Please don't fall into the trap of assuming that the vaccine equals "end of pandemic".

Why not?

As I understand it, what we are trying to avoid are severe cases that result in long term damage, and also especially to avoid overloading the intensive care units.

If they manage to vacinate 60% or 70% of the risk groups, this will pretty much bring the ICUs back to normal. If 50, 60% of the general population are vacinated, the rate of transmissions will also hopefully drop.

Either way, if nothing else works, I foresee a shift next year of separating/protecting elderly people and other high risk candidates instead of locking down entire nations.

I agree with one description of the situation - that there's now a nice bright shining light at the end of the tunnel, but we still have quite a bit of tunnel ahead of us...

Which should have been the strategy THIS YEAR.

We are at home just us and Dad making a roast and my sisters baking a ham.

The fatality rate for COVID in the US is already down in the 0.1-0.3 range, and assuming there has not been gross exaggeration of COVID cases in the US, and if the current infection rate continues for the next couple of weeks, the US may be approaching herd immunity numbers by the end of the month even without a vaccine. If, on top of this, the vaccines available are concentrated on the truly vulnerable population, cases and fatalities will fall dramatically (to next to nothing) between mid-January and mid-February. However, whether the pandemic is "over" may be determined more by the political appetite to reduce restrictions and people's perceptions of a threat than by any real risk.

Please discuss Pandemic here https://SimHQ.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/ubb/showflat/Number/4542065/Searchpage/1/Main/423271/Words/%2Bcoronavirus/Search/true/re-covid-19#Post4542065

This for everyone here to wish everyone here a happy Christmas and safe new year to everyone here.

Merry Christmas everyone, be as happy and healthy as possible in these circumstances.

There is no power in the world that can 'cancel' the birth of Jesus. All a civil authority can do is to stop public gatherings and parties. Christmas remains.

To one and all , have a safe, happy and blessed Christmas and let us hope for return to some level of sanity in 2021

I agree with Archie's post..No government edict can cancel the significance of the reason for the Christmas celebration..I would rather stay home and hope my family members will still be here next year..Getting static from my late girlfriends family but I'm firm just me and my pup for dinner..
Bless you all this Christmas and hopefully things will be more normal this coming year..We can't lose hope

Amen, brother. Christ is Lord and he has risen. Our great savior was born and sacrificed everything for the rest of us poor, pitiful, wretched souls.

Merry Christmas everyone!

May we all find light, happiness, and solace in this strange season, and never forget the true gift of Christmas is not the stuff under our tree, but that of Jesus Christ.

Just a Word :

I clicked on one of the inforlinks trying to move it as it was blocking part of the forum screen , and it turned out to be a Tracking program. Lucky me, my antivirus blocked it.

Inforlinks?