Check out this Christmas tree which I saw by the Plein in The Hague:
It’s a cute Christmas tree, but I will admit it looks like someone had a bit too much fun with strips of toilet paper at the bottom. I assume it is actually tinsel, though.
I saw an even more creative Christmas tree over on the r/thenetherlands Reddit page:
(Alternative Christmas tree in Maastricht at the “Our Lady plaza”.) Those are café/restaurant chairs. Since the cafés and restaurants are only open for takeout or delivery these days, why not re-use them (or store them) as a Christmas tree? The best part: In the back on the left of the photo you see the hint of another Christmas tree.
The last few days have seen the number of coronavirus cases skyrocket. We’re now back to around 10,000 cases a day. There was an emergency meeting of the safety regions and the government today, with a few additional meetings tomorrow. It is unclear if they will hold a press conference this coming Tuesday or if they will hold it tomorrow, one day earlier than they usually would (press conferences generally happen on Tuesdays).
There are a few measures that could be taken:
- closure of ‘through’ or ‘transfer’ locations where a lot of people meet, for example libraries, movie theatres, zoos, cinemas, etc.
- closure of all not-essential stores (everything except supermarkets, pharmacies, etc.)
- closing of schools
Of these I think either the first two are more likely. Interestingly the Netherlands actually did not close essential stores during the first wave back in March / April. It was always the store’s choice to close or not. However, Germany has also announced a hard lockdown that will last through 10 January so some are speculating that German tourists will travel across the border to do their Christmas shopping here unless we also go into a hard lockdown as well.
New coronavirus infections near 10,000 as ministers discuss new measures from dutchnews.nl
Life in the Hague 