LONDON — In a year of hard decisions about how to confront the coronavirus, perhaps none has proved as anguished for Prime Minister Boris Johnson as whether to ban Britons from getting together for a little Christmas cheer. For weeks, British tabloids have speculated darkly that Mr. Johnson would be forced to “cancel Christmas.” Some noted he would the first British leader to do so since Oliver Cromwell tried to stamp out Yuletide merrymaking during the ascetic days of the Puritan movement in the mid-17th century. On Wednesday, Mr. Johnson stuck by his pledge to lift some important restrictions for a few precious days between Dec. 23 and 27 — a decision that attests to his deep-seated desire not to be seen as the Ebenezer Scrooge of Downing Street, as well as to the atavistic appeal of the Christmas holiday in this otherwise secular country. Mr. Johnson has not wavered even after new cases surged in London, which prompted the government to put the capital under stricter rules between now and Dec. 23. Nor has he backed down after two British medical journals warned of the potentially dire consequences of easing the measures over Christmas.

Source: New York Times December 16, 2020 18:56 UTC