There's an interesting article on the BBC news site posing the question, Did we see a Christmas coronavirus spike? The general thrust of the article is that although some cases may have been the result of Christmas gatherings, in general, the rising case numbers is mainly a continuing trend partly driven by new covid variants.
Was ruining Christmas necessary? In spite of all the gloom and doom and predictions of mass deaths, it seems to have been a non-event, but I'm sure that our governments will claim credit for it anyway.