And it's expected people will be allowed to travel outside their county from December 18th.
Cabinet Ministers have given the green light for restaurants and pubs that serve food to open next week.
While shops, gyms, hairdressers, barbers, museums and cinemas will also be allowed to open.
The re-opening is set to unfold in three stages.
Next Tuesday December first will see retail, gyms, hairdressers, barbers, museums and cinemas allowed to open.
Cabinet has approved then the re-opening of restaurants and gastropubs from next Friday with the meeting discussing changes to the rules around dining indoors.
Finally the third stage will be when people are allowed to travel outside their county and visit other people's homes - and that's likely to start on December 18th until a few days into January.
However, Christmas gatherings will come with guidelines, with the government to recommend no hugging or shaking hands with your guests.
Whoever is cooking Christmas dinner will also be told to wear a facemask while preparing and serving food.
People will also be told if they intend to have gatherings at Christmas to limit their contacts from now.
An official announcement is expected at around 6pm this evening.
