Two things come into conflict - people's feelings of caution and trust.
You are about to meet people you know well and want to see.
And yet you know you have no idea about the health of all the people they have been mixing with.
While New Zealand's virus elimination approach has worked well - by one estimate last week it has been arguably the best in the world - doubts persist.
The country still gets regular Covid-19 cases in the community. In the past four months, the virus has got into the community eight times via managed isolation and quarantine facilities or a port.
We rely on scanners, tests, genomic sequencing, and a taskforce of tracing detectives to ring-fence each case that breaks out.
The country is in a cocoon of safety and normality but there's an artificial quality to it.
Until safe and effective vaccines are out, our risk is low but a random chance of being unlucky still exists. Australia is already looking ahead to requiring arrivals to have had a vaccine once they become available.
For now, when the suburbs and shopping centres we sometimes go to get mentioned in reports about cases, it feels like a near-miss.
We get daily reminders of new arrivals testing positive in border quarantine and it seems like the virus is knocking on the door.
It gives us some sense of how unsettling it could be to live in areas of countries where the virus is far more prevalent - and yet it puts our situation into perspective.
South Dakota in the United States has a population of 900,000 people - a bit more than half of Auckland - and yet on Sunday the state recorded its deadliest Covid day with 54 dead. According to Worldometers.info, its total death rate from the virus is 942 with 79,000 cases.
Millions of Americans travelled for Thanksgiving weekend despite a bleak picture of 13 million cases, 265,000 deaths and an under-pressure health service.
On Saturday South Korea reported more than 500 new coronavirus cases for the third straight day, in its worst viral spread in months.
The coronavirus has killed more than 350,000 people in Europe and, while tough restrictions are having an impact, there's still Christmas to get through.
European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen said: "We must learn from the summer and not repeat the same mistakes. Relaxing too fast and too much risks a third wave after Christmas."
In Britain, people are banned from visiting other homes in most areas and there are travel limits to places where there are high-infection rates. Yet, for five days over the holidays, up to three homes can form a "Christmas bubble" and people can move between them.
The desire for contact with family and to touch base with traditional 'normality' will be acute at Christmas and New Year regardless of whether people are in countries where that's a good idea.
New Zealanders are fortunate to be in a part of the world where the Christmas traditions will - all going well - be able to stay that way this year.
