Families will have to keep their distance at Christmas as dinner is off the menu

THE bells might ring out for Christmas Day this year but it will surely be a festive season like no other.

Just what it will be like though will all depend on the virus – and even the best scientific minds can’t predict how it will behave this winter.

‘We just really don’t know yet what the behaviour of the virus is going to be – particularly for Christmas,’ Professor Peter Lunn of the Economic and Social Research Institute said.

‘It’s really hard at the moment. Christmas is about accepting the uncertainty,’ he said.

Adapting to circumstances – whatever they are – will be key.

‘Typically many people at Christmas would find they’re meeting multiple family members – it’s not just one household,’ Prof Lunn said. ‘People will go somewhere for lunch and call in somewhere else in the evening.’

But this year almost certainly will have to be different.

He suggested that a family walk instead of an ensemble Christmas dinner might be an alternative.

‘Many people at Christmas would have an afternoon walk – well maybe this year that walk could be one of the family meetings.’

Such an approach is exactly what retired Trinity Professor David McConnell is planning.

‘I can’t see we’ll have anything like a normal Christmas,’ he said.

‘We have three grandchildren, numerous brothers and sisters, nephews and nieces. We all get together in different collections at Christmas. I don’t see very much of that happening. It might come down to something like a walk in the mountains.’