Christmas day: Just another working day for some
If you’re off for Christmas, spare a thought for those who work over the festive season. spoke to a few people for whom Christmas is just another, albeit very special, working day
John Creedon
As a boy, I loved Christmas Day … for the first few hours. The toys, my mother’s cooking, dinner with lemonade and dessert! Then, by late afternoon, a sort of ennui set in, as darkness descended on the deserted streets of Cork City centre. Despite weeks of anticipation and one sleepless night... It’s over.
These days, I approach Christmas with far less expectation, so I’m rarely disappointed.
I’m up and trading by 7.30am. I work on Christmas day, presenting a show live on RTÉ Radio 1 from our Cork City studios to the Irish all over the world.
Although it’s an early start, it’s a labour of love and there’s a certain romance about picking my way through the very same deserted streets of Childhood Christmases... crows pecking at last night’s take-aways on McCurtain Street... a solitary figure throwing bread to a plume of gulls tumbling in the darkness over Brian Boru Bridge... a man shuffling around the corner from the Simon Community Shelter… Although my music playlist is compiled in the days leading up to the programme, it’s never quite finished. The menu is varied, and right up to 11am, constantly changing, as an avalanche of emails and tweets flows down the screen in front of me. The diaspora connects from different time zones around the planet. Oz and New Zealand are in early, sending love from Geelong to Mallow.
At 1pm, I’m out the gap, and home to my partner Mairead, who’s full-tilt prepping Christmas brunch. Bang on cue my daughters and crews descend. ‘Well girls, how did ye get on?’ The smallies are sleepy-eyed but bursting to give me the inventory.
By the time they’ve all drifted away again, and Mairead is plonked on the couch, I find myself alone in the kitchen with two thoughts.
Gratitude that this year they are all safe and in great form and secondly, I note to self that I’d better put that little tiny plastic frying pan someplace safe where my granddaughter Rosie will see it when she visits later in the week.
Charmaine Murphy
I’m a home help, and, for a change, I’m not working this Christmas Day but I’ve worked the past 12 Christmases.
I love getting up early on Christmas morning and going to work. You can never really be sure, but it’s usually only the people who don’t have families and who really need help I’d see on Christmas Day. I’ll help any of my clients who need assistance getting out of bed, washing, getting set up for the day, and I’ll be sure to leave out the Christmas dinner.
The afternoon is usually my own, and I’ll get my own Christmas dinner. Then it’s back to work to make sure everyone is okay for supper, and getting to bed.
It might be the same job, but it’s not the same day. We always try to build up Christmas, while being cognisant of people having lost loved ones during the year. It can be a long day for some people, and the only person they might see is the home help.
Usually it’s a happy day, and people are always delighted to see you. Everyone should get up early on Christmas morning and make it their job to visit someone!
Father Peter McVerry
We have about 20 hostels, and each one will provide a Christmas dinner for the residents. Our Dublin city centre hostel will provide a Christmas dinner for people we know to be living on the streets, or living between hostels.
There’s no transport on Christmas Day, but we provide a free taxi service to our residents. Some of our residents will go home for Christmas Day to see family, and they wouldn’t want to go home without a Christmas present.
Dignity is a fundamental part of our identity, and that should not change if a person is homeless.
For me, the best two weeks of the year are the two weeks after Christmas, because the pressure is over. Christmas can be a horrendous time for homeless people. Homeless people can find themselves especially lonely and alone.
Stewart Philpott
Christmas Day in An Garda Síochána is another day on the rostered shift, albeit a special one. Christmas Day holidays are allocated usually to those with small children.
You know well in advance what your Christmas duty will be, so you have plenty of time to prepare. There’s an air of acceptance if you’re on. We run a 24/7 service, so we know what we signed up for.
I recall one Christmas Day when we had a call from distraught parents who had been visiting relatives. They returned home in a taxi, only to discover that their son had left a toy in the back of the taxi. Following a trawl of local taxi companies the child and the toy were reunited, much to delight of all concerned.
I get huge satisfaction and pride being in a position to help people in need and this can be especially true on Christmas Day. It’s the colleagues we work with and the public we serve that keep us going at difficult times. Those, and of course those at home who support us all year round.
Christmas Day is a day away from family, but we make the very most of it with colleagues and look forward to spending quality time at home at the end of the shift.
Paula Hynes
Christmas Day normally begins for us on the 24th as we get as much work done to lighten the load for a few days. Pete and I run a 180-cow dairy farm with our three girls, Chloe, Becky and Georgie, helping out. Things always get a little festive around the yard, and the girls usually organise a little Christmas dinner for their Jersey calves and favourite cows, a lovely concoction of silage, carrots, apples and maize munch with a few Christmas carols thrown in.
Santa arrives early in our house and then it’s a quick cup of coffee and down to the farm yard. Although we dry off the milking herd prior to Christmas Day, animals still need to be fed, with all stock being checked to make sure everyone is happy and healthy.
We usually have the Christmas dinner about 5 or 6pm as we have a few jobs to get through again in the afternoon; our girls have ponies too so they all need evening feeds but there’s always a great atmosphere in the afternoon, partly due to a well-earned G&T in early afternoon.
The joys of having animals means having to do some work on Christmas, but when we are so used to being out working seven days a week, I suppose we’d get itchy feet if we were inside for the full day.
We spend the rest of the holiday period taking turns and keeping the workload simple so there are a few lie-ins, plenty of Christmas films, and trips out and about enjoying the festivities.
Paul Colton
The last time I had Christmas Day “off” I was 14-years-old. The following year I was Church organist in Glanmire and so, every Christmas since, I’ve had responsibilities in relation to the worship that is at the heart of the Christmas celebrations for Christians. Christmas follows a familiar pattern of pastoral care, religious Services, and preaching the Christmas message.
More people come to Church at Christmas than at any other time of the year. Approximately 87% of the Church of Ireland people in Cork, Cloyne and Ross come to Church at Christmas, whereas, on Sundays during the rest of the year it is about 27%.
Woven through it all, of course, is family reunion and get-together and all the usual Christmas traditions, including cards, gifts, meeting friends, sporting fixtures, and an extra effort to support charities. We have always invited visitors to our home at Christmas as well from outside our immediate family.
Illness and tragedy are no respecters of holidays so, in the nature of priestly vocation, it’s often the case that in the midst of Christmas celebrations one has to go out to offer solidarity to those for whom the holy day has gone badly wrong.
This mixture of celebration, family life, and religious duty, is a way of life, a vocation, really. As I say, at this stage, I have known and experienced Christmas no other way.
Ciaran Lynch
My Christmas begins in St Mary’s Cathedral, Killarney. I’m a member of the Gleneagle Concert Band and every year we perform at midday Mass. I’ll go straight to the Brehon, where we’ll have around 150 guests staying with us.
Staff and guests alike are in good spirits and there’s a lovely relaxed vibe all around the hotel.
We go all out for breakfast, lunch and dinner — the food is really fantastic. We will have all the traditional dishes and trimmings and lots of surprises as well.
The team at The Brehon is made up of people from around the world and so we work our rosters to try and accommodate everyone’s different cultures and traditions.
Caitriona Twomey
In 2011, Cork Penny Dinners served approximately 100 meals a week. In 2018, we serve over 2,000 meals a week. Founded in Famine times, we have a simple policy: no one is ever turned away. There’s an open door and a warm welcome. We never judge. We serve.
Christmas dinner is given to anyone who needs it on Christmas Day. Staff from the River Lee Hotel, and Penny Dinners volunteers, are there before dawn to put those dinners on the tables.
There’s always a party on Christmas Day, with a concert featuring the High Hopes Choir, and a special guest appearance by Santa, with gifts for all.
We are very grateful to everyone who helps us through the year, and it’s thanks to them we can help so many people.
