The time by which people should start to know how different their festive plans may look is 18 December.
Boris Johnson had to put the brakes on Christmas mixing plans last year because of soaring cases just a day before, and this is an inauspicious date for this government.
It is also the day that it is said that the country was under strict restrictions on social contact, and that the staff party hosted by the Prime Minister was on that day.
The key voices for caution last December have been replaced by Sajid Javid and Steve Barclay.
Gove was a champion of vaccination certification and was more skeptical of calls for returns to the office, while Hancock spoke forcefully on the pressures the NHS could experience. All of those contributions are missing from the debate now.
Both Johnson and Javid believe that a pact was made with the public that the vaccine was the way out of the epidemic.
If a person has a positive diagnosis, Javid will direct the National Health Service to give them new antiviral treatment at home.
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Will the Omicron Covid variant not be around for Christmas?
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One adviser described that tactic as all the eggs in one basket, with hopes pinned almost entirely on scientific intervention to halt the spread of the variant.
The public mood is different this time. The government has introduced a tight regime at the border and mask-wearing in shops, which is supported by the public.
According to the latest polling from YouGov, most adults in England are not in favor of the return of limited numbers at gatherings and are not in favor of closing pubs.
The public has not moved much since the new variant was discovered, suggesting that there is a degree of fatigue about more bad Covid news.
Measures to stop the spread of the Omicron variant would be reviewed three weeks from now.
Johnson will need to return to parliament before the Christmas recess to ask for a renewed mandate on face coverings, or the rules will expire on 20 December, in order to appease Conservative MPs who bristled at the return of face coverings. It will mean that ministers have to make a decision the previous weekend.
Number 10 could introduce new rules on social distance earlier than the official review date. There are lots of social events in between.
The deputy prime minister said people can attend an office party or share a mince pie with elderly relatives. He said that his staff would get together in small teams and not hold a party of their own.
