The government can still save Christmas

Shops take on temporary workers to cope with the rush, delivery companies are working overtime, Royal Mail finally has something other than junk to put through the letterbox (more than 1bn Christmas cards are bought into the UK every year), pantos are booked out at the theatre, and the restaurants and bars are packed with office parties.

There is no other date in the calendar with anything like the same kind of commercial punch.

The trouble is, Christmas 2020 is already starting to look like the most miserable many of us have ever seen. Fresh lockdown restrictions mean only six people can gather in the same place.

Extended families won’t be able to get together. Shows will have to be cancelled. The malls and high streets will be half empty, a grotto with hand sanitiser and masks won’t be much fun, and right now it doesn’t appear as if any of us will be travelling anywhere.

It wouldn’t be in the least surprising if Nicola Sturgeon found a way of abolishing Christmas altogether, adding that it could be restored as soon as the Scots achieve independence.

It isn’t looking good. For lots of companies, that may well be terminal. January already usually witnesses a few bankruptcies as any retail chain that doesn’t have a good Christmas calls in the administrators.

For lots of businesses, January to October is about breaking even and covering your overheads. Christmas is the only time sales are strong enough to keep going, and the money made gets them through to next year. Sure, a vaccine would be great, but it doesn’t look like we are going to get one that quickly.

Instead, the Government needs to do everything it can to save Christmas. There are three places it could start.

First, lift restrictions. We know the infection rate matters, and so does the rate of hospitalisation as Covid-19 spreads through the community.

But the record so far shows that doesn’t happen right away. If the virus is under reasonable control as winter starts to bite, then we could have a two-week lifting of lockdown.

Start on Friday 11th December, and run that until Christmas Day, and it would allow everyone a lot more freedom to get out and spend some money. Parties could be back on, families could gather, and we could have a last-minute dash to the shops for anything we had forgotten.