Christmas Day just about breaking through into the 30s suddenly felt for the first time like a proper summer.
The mid-afternoon temperature reached a tad over 30. It was the hottest day so far this month, and the forecast is for Monday to be even warmer - at 33 degrees.
Tuesday and Wednesday are also expected to be sunny, topping out about 32 degrees, before the chance of showers helps the mercury drop a tad to the mid 20s for the rest of the week from Thursday.
While Sunday's warmth was far from a record for Canberra on December 25 - that was in 1957 when it hit 37.7 - it was hot enough to push people towards the cool.
"In the shade, it's not too hot," Bob Foster said at the table under the ancient boughs in St John's Church in Reid.
He was there seeking - and finding - companionship in the annual Christmas lunch for those who might otherwise be alone.
"It's all about sociability," he said. "Quite often, you live alone and this is the place where you can mix with other people. I think it's about the kindness offered to us.
"When you come here, you are treated with respect."
Across the table from him, Linsi-Anne Walshe said: "It's a wonderful place to come and celebrate Christmas. These are lovely people."
The event was organised by St John's Care which works to alleviate poverty in Canberra.
Throughout the year, it offers household goods and food to those who need it. This year's special Christmas lunch was a return to some sort of pre-COVID normality.
Last year, for example, guests had to book so that numbers could be regulated, but this year anyone could just turn up.
They catered for 250, with about 40 volunteers doing the serving. Chicken and ham were on the menu, plus potato or coleslaw salad. Christmas pudding, apple pie or fruit salad with custard or ice-cream followed.
Bishop Mark Short and his wife, Monica, did a turn with a rendition of The Twelve Days of Christmas, complete with actions.
"One of the purposes of having the lunch is that people can come in and mingle," one of the volunteers, Beth Heyde, said.
"If they were sitting at home on their own, they wouldn't feel that Christmas is such a wonderful day.
"There are a lot of people in affluent Canberra who don't have the wherewithal to have a nice Christmas meal."
The Salvation Army in Braddon also organised a Christmas meal for people who might otherwise go without.
Both organisations said that this year they were seeing the kinds of people in distress who haven't been before, particularly the working poor.
Apart from the two Christian groups, Canberra seemed to have stayed home and in the shade. People did go for the early run around Lake Burley Griffin, but then left as the temperature rose, presumably returning to the festive table to put the kilos they'd lost with the exercise back on.
Coffee addicts had a hard time of it - except in Mawson where Queenie of Queenie's Cafe decided to open.
She said they hadn't put on any special dishes - no plum pudding latte or anything like that - but they were doing a steady trade in crushed avocado and eggs benedict.
But, aside from food and festivity, Christmas for many people was about Christ and worship in church.
The Catholic Vicar General of the Archdiocese of Canberra and Goulburn, Father Tony Percy, noted that the effects of the lockdowns lingered this year.
"There's a lot of people who've been getting crook and ill because we've been so isolated," he said.
"One of the themes in theology which is always strong at this time of year is the vulnerability of God, so there's a greater rapport between us and the baby Jesus.
"A lot of couples in our parish have just had babies, and they are so beautiful that they take our attention, and that's more evocative because of the pandemic - the power of the child."
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