Global virus rules for Christmas: Tough, mild or none at all

In Peru, you can’t drive your car on Christmas. In Lebanon, you can go to a nightclub, but you can’t dance. In South Africa, roadblocks instead of beach parties will mark this year’s festive season.

How many people can you share a Christmas meal with? France recommends no more than six, in Chile it’s 15, and in Brazil it’s as many as you want. Meanwhile, Italy’s mind-boggling, color-coded holiday virus rules change almost every day for the next two weeks.

Countries around the world are trying to find the right formulas to keep their people safe for Christmas, especially as new virus variants prompt renewed travel bans and fuel resurgent infections, hospitalizations and deaths at the end of an already devastating year.

Here's a look at some of the restrictions around the world for the holiday season:

BRITAIN

It was meant to be a time when families across the U.K. could enjoy something like a normal Christmas despite the pandemic. Authorities planned to relax restrictions, allowing up to three households to mix in the days around Dec. 25.

The emergence of a new, more contagious variant of the coronavirus changed that.

The four nations of the U.K. – England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland – are all in various states of shutdown and have ditched their Christmas plans. No indoor mixing of households is allowed in London and southeast England.

Instead of Christmas joy, a sense of dread and isolation is looming. Dozens of countries have limited flights from Britain, and daily new infections are running at record highs. Hospitals across the U.K., which has Europe’s second-highest virus-related death toll at over 68,000, are heading towards capacity at a time of year when other illnesses abound.

BRAZIL

In Brazil, Christmas 2020 will look much like...