Why I am not going home for Christmas - Conor Matchett

The Shambles in York at Christmas

That means not travelling home to York, something I have done every year since leaving home in 2013 to go to Edinburgh University.

This was not, by any means, an easy decision.

I know how important Christmas is to my family. It is the only time of the year my parents are normally guaranteed to see both of their now adult children who live several hours away (although they would claim this is actually a blessing).

And the festive period is especially important for my Granny who, while she sees my parents every week or so, lives alone and is visited by her grandchildren only a handful of times a year due to where we live.

For us the holiday is not about presents or religion, it’s about family and a once-a-year opportunity for us all to be together without the pressures of work or young adult life, served up with a healthy dose of pigs in blankets.

In this dismal year, where my Granny was shielding for months, Christmas was a beacon of potential normality.

I won’t lie, before the announcement of the five day relaxation and the travel ban, I was considering booking a train to go home for a fortnight – effectively self-isolating for a week prior to Christmas Day to limit risk.

The new rules made me reassess to an extent, but the news vaccines would soon be available to clinically vulnerable people – of which my Granny is the very definition - put the decision into sharp focus and I decided the risk was not worth it.

Luckily, I now live with my girlfriend, the result of us taking the advice from England's deputy chief medical officer Dr Jenny Harries to "test” our relationship, having moved in together in October.

That decision means we can now spend it together, in Edinburgh, after she decided a seven-hour trip into the heart of England was also not worth the risk.

It won’t be normal or perfect, but it will be bearable and, more importantly, safe.

But our situation, the same for those lucky enough to live or have an extended household with those they care most about, is not universally the case.

Those suggesting a family Christmas is easy to miss simply lack empathy.

While Covid-19’s impact on the elderly rightly gets the most attention, the restrictions were particularly tough for young people who are the most likely to travel home.

Many complained governments had forgotten about those with no option but to flat-share, stuck in statutorily restricted households often considered no more than a bed with a roof.

Lockdown meant having to work from home in their bedrooms within cramped flats – often shared with strangers – without gardens or at the frontline of the pandemic in shops, restaurants and hospitals.

It cut people off for months from their friends – often their sole support network – and sometimes, as for me, from their partners.

For them, like the elderly, the positive aspects for mental health of seeing family or friends at Christmas cannot be understated.

Ultimately, it’s a decision based on risk and is deeply personal.

We’d all do well to remember that this Christmas.

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