During the five days, three households can form a “Christmas bubble” to meet in private homes and gardens, places of worship, or public outdoor spaces; travelling across different tiers and nations to meet with your Christmas bubble will also be allowed.
Patels said the guidance is “very clear” on that, but she would urge people to be “very, very conscientious.”
“I do want to emphasize as well ... don’t max out for five days, please be conscientious and have a smaller, more local and safer Christmas,” the home secretary said.
She said the government would not advise people to travel, especially from a lower tier area to a higher tier area, or vice versa, because “that would clearly put coronavirus at risk in terms of spreading the virus.”
The government wants people to “exercise the right kind of judgment” as they “have been [doing] brilliant throughout the year,” Patel said.
Asked how she would spend her Christmas, the home secretary said she would stay within her “very, very tight and small family bubble” apart from being on-call and meeting with some frontline officers working on the day “to pay credit to them.”
Johnson on Wednesday asked people to “exercises the greatest possible personal responsibility” over the Christmas period.
Looking at the latest data from across the UK with the devolved administrations, Johnson said, they decided that the overall situation was “worse and more challenging” than the governments had hoped when they made the rules for Christmas.
Therefore he asked people not to take full advantage of the relaxation of the restrictions.
“When we say three households can meet on five days, I want to stress these are maximums, not targets to aim for,” Johnson said.
He asked people to minimise the number of people to meet during Christmas, and “if you are visiting others over Christmas, we are asking you—in the five days beforehand, as early as this Friday—to reduce the number of people you are in contact with to the lowest possible.”
