On New Year’s Eve 2019 as we ushered in the start of a new decade, the words ‘I have a feeling it’s going to be a great year’ were spoken. No one batted an eyelid and the celebrations continued into the early hours. Three months later, the country was in lockdown and the world was coming to terms with a global pandemic on a scale not seen since the Spanish flu. As we approach the end of another year, it’s worth reflecting on Christmases affected by COVID-19 and what we might learn from them as clinicians and as people.

Christmas 2020 took place amid the chaos of the tier system with a newly identified strain of the virus spreading rapidly in South East England.1 Having claimed it would be …