With the Northern Beaches coronavirus cluster, thousands in Sydney are spending Christmas in isolation

If you’d asked me a few weeks ago what my Christmas looked like, I wouldn’t have said eating an entire panettone in bed on my own.

Welcome to Isomas, the most 2020 Christmas imaginable — one that many are living right now.

Thousands of people in Sydney alone are in self-isolation after being exposed to someone with COVID-19, while others are in hotel quarantine, in lockdown or have made the call it’s not safe to have guests.

We’re having to find a new way to spend a day that is usually marked by hugs and kisses from family, passing plates around the table and singing carols.

All of that is forbidden to us now, with Christmas suddenly spent in solitary confinement with a sentence of 14 days.

So how did I get here, to what I’ve come to call…