Many of us are making difficult decisions about whether to see friends and family from other households. It’s hard when we want to spend time with people we care about, but also want to protect them from catching coronavirus.
Below are some ideas on how to stay safe when you want to spend time with other people.
No Risk
Video and telephone calls are a great way to stay intouch with people safely.
Here are some of the ways that people are using video calls to stay in touch:
- Having a cup of tea over a video call with friends
- Propping their phones up on the table to share a meal
- Casting (projecting) their phone screen on to their TV so that they have their family almost life size in their living room!
- Playing online games or quizzes
- One couple who are sleeping in separate rooms (because one of them is at risk) have a video call to say good night, which helps them feel closer
If you use platforms like Zoom or Teams you can arrange to talk to lots of people at the same time.
Lower Risk
Meeting outside means that the virus does not build up in the air. But it’s still important to stay 2m apart and make sure that you don’t share or touch each other’s things (e.g. cups, plates, phones).
It’s important to stay warm – particularly for older people or people with health conditions that are made worse by cold weather. Here are some things that could help you keep warm:
- Meeting during the day
- Taking warm drinks, hot water bottles and blankets
- Wearing lots of layers of clothes
- Taking a waterproof mat or bag to put on a bench
- If possible, walking or moving around to keep warm
“Our two young children don’t mind what we do at Christmas, as long as Father Christmas can still visit! But my husband’s parents, who are elderly and at risk if they get Coronavirus, would really like to see their grandchildren. It was a hard decision, but we’ve all decided to do things differently this year to keep everyone safe and make sure we can all celebrate lots more Christmasses together in the future.
In the weeks before Christmas, we’re doing video calls so the children can show their grandparents their advent calendars and sing Christmas songs. We are also going to send things in the post as surprises.
We’re not going to see them on Christmas Day, which is hard, but we’ll do a video call. Instead, we’re planning a celebration outside with them before Christmas. We’ve chosen a few possible dates in case the weather is bad. We’re going to have two separate tables spaced apart in their garden – one for them and one for us. There will be Christmas decorations outside, and music playing in the kitchen with the window open to make it feel more special. We’re going to swap presents (socially distanced and with hand gel before and after!), and have blankets, hot water bottles, and hot chocolate to keep warm. We’re also planning a few games we can do while keeping a safe distance! We’ll only go in their house to use the downstairs toilet, which they’re going to clean before we come and after we’ve left, and they will use the upstairs toilet. They’re also going to leave windows open in the house to keep fresh air circulating.
We’re not going to see many other people in the week before we go, to reduce the risk of picking something up that we might pass on. It will be a weird Christmas but probably one we’ll be telling stories about in years to come. Hopefully Father Christmas will use hand gel when he visits, as my son requested!”
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