For many people, December 25, 2020, doesn't even count as a Christmas Day.
You were only allowed to meet one other household on the big day. Many had to choose between which of their adult kids they would see. Others couldn't see their family at all because it was too far to travel there and back in a single day. With almost none of the population vaccinated many simply opted to spend the period alone, rather than risk the health of elderly relatives. It was bleak, it was lonely, it just wasn't Christmas.
One of the crazy things was, just weeks before we thought that we could be having a normal Christmas.
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There was great hope after a two week firebreak lockdown at the end of October designed to get the virus under control. It was sold to the public as designed to get us through to and save Christmas. At the start of December everyone was socialising, you could meet five people from outside your household in a pub, bar or restaurant. But the virus quickly resurged.
On December 10, Wales' weekly infection rate had risen to 480 cases per 100,000 people - double what it was before we went into the firebreak. Perhaps even more concerning it was almost 800% higher it had been on September 21 when, at 54.6 cases per 100k people in the last week, SAGE said that urgent action was required to prevent “a very large epidemic with catastrophic consequences”.
To combat this rise the Welsh Government did not lockdown instead simply said that from December 4 all cafes, pubs, bars and restaurants will have to close their doors at 6pm and said Cinemas, bowling alleys and other indoor entertainment venues would have to close completely.
The First Minister has indicated that the reason for this was because they had promised the people of Wales that the fire break would see them through till Christmas.
With just weeks to go plans were put in place for a "four nation approach" with a five day Christmas bubble where three housegolds could meet were announced.
However, it quickly became clear that Wales was in a worse position that the other UK nations who were more recently out of their firebreaks.
On December 19, 2020, the Mark Drakeford announced that non-essential retail, close contact services, gyms and leisure centres and hospitality will close at the end of trading that and stay-at-home restrictions will be in place from midnight.
He also announced that he two-household bubble now only applies on Christmas Day rather than a five-day period between December 23 and 27.
The Welsh Government cabinet was split on whether the Welsh Government guidance should be made law - with all the legal penalties that could be imposed on people for breaking the rules.
In a recent S4C documentary into that period showed the disagreements.
Vaughan Gething argued that the law needed changing saying there would be accusations of "bad faith" but that Wales is "materially different" because rates "are so much higher" finishing by saying "I think we need to change the law and the guidance".
Now health minister Eluned Morgan can be heard to add that she "agrees with Vaughan" and says that people "will take a mile if they give an inch".
The cabinet was split with four wanting to keep with a four nation approach currently adopted where the Christmas rules are just guidance and four wanted to make the guidance law.
Mark Drakeford then told the group: "[We] can't keep agonising I am afraid as hard as this is. Here is my reluctant conclusion. We should bring the guidance and regulations into the same place.
Lib Dem Kirsty Williams, then education minister, then address the group saying: "We have made a decision so we need to back ourselves now and be bold and explaining why this is the right decision,. You have to go out there and say 'I am doing this because we have doctors and nurses on their knees with a potential disaster on our hands."
Talking about his feeling on deviating from the all nations approach Drakeford finished the segment by saying he "doesn't care about relationship with UK Gov" because "they don't care about. A similar England-wide lockdown did not come into effect until the New Year.
Announcing the strict Christmas rules Drakeford told the people of Wales: "We know that 2021 will be a different and a better year.
"Our economy will recover. Christmas will come again."
The legacy of the Christmas debacle is hard to pin down. As with almost everything to do with Covid it is complicated with lots of moving parts. However there is no escaping the fact that cases did not start truly declining from the winter wave until a week after Christmas. This suggests that meeting over Christmas drove a a Covid wave which turned out to be the most deadly during the pandemic.
The death rate relative to population (100k people) for Wales in the first wave was 79, slightly higher than Scotland on 77 but far lower than England's 87.
In the second wave, Wales' death rate was devastating 169 compared to the England's 144 and far, far higher than Scotland's 108.
The handling over Christmas and the preceding rates are a big part of this. You can read a full analysis of this here.
