It's the most wonderful time of the year once again. Christmas Day is a matter of days away and preparations are in full swing across Wales for everyone to have their own special celebrations with their family and friends, nearest and dearest.
But while the rest of us look forward to tucking into a dinner with all the trimmings, some of that expensive plonk you bought especially from the festive budget, watching King Charles' first ever festive speech, and eating more sweets and chocolate than you can shake a stick at there will be plenty of others for whom it will be just another day on duty.
Many workers and volunteers in some of the most important roles in the frontline and in the community cannot afford to take a conventional day off like many of us are blessed to. It is vitally important that they are available to serve all year round,and Christmas Day is no different. From emergency services like the Wales Air Ambulance and the RNLI to charity workers with the RSPCA we've profiled just some of those people who will be working on Christmas Day this year.
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Helimeds will be waiting in the wings
For the Wales Air Ambulance Christmas is very much a “normal day” at work but with an extra bit of festive sparkle and camaraderie. Among their staff will be critical care allocator Rebecca Cann who said spending the day with her colleagues is like being with a second family.
She said: “We are with a family although it might not be our family at home. Our work family is like a family and we are there to make sure that the day becomes the best day it can for everybody and help people where we are able to.
“Working Christmas Day is like any other day. We have to be alert and on top form every day of the year and hopefully, by us being there, we can turn what might be the worst day of somebody’s life into a better outcome. The Christmas period can be a busy time for us. There are lots of celebrations ongoing, lots of people riding bikes that they haven’t ridden before and falling off them, so please celebrate but please be safe.
“We are celebrating Christmas on December 19 this year when I am off – much to my children’s delight as they get to open their presents a week early. It is something we have done for the last 11 years since we’ve had children. They are used to it but they are proud because they know that people need help every day of the year. My favourite thing about Christmas is the run-up to Christmas. I like the feeling that seems to surround the season. Everything seems a little bit more twinkly and the coming together of friends and family be it on Christmas Day or any other day if you’re working like we do in the emergency services.”
Edward Terry is a co-pilot and said he felt that Christmas Day will be the same as most shifts. He said: "It will start with a crew brief. We will get the helicopter ready and once we are set then we must be available for tasking from then on so pretty the same as every other day really. We might have a little celebration, here and there, but it will be pretty much the same.
“The weather can really affect where we fly – we have got to look out for low cloud and low visibility. We’ve got to think about icy conditions so wintertime it can be quite cold. My favourite thing about Christmas is spending it with family. Obviously when you are on shift you are getting to spend it with your work family as you could call it. Spending time together is the best part about Christmas.
“I have been a pilot for 10 years and a commercial pilot for five years. My proudest moment is starting to work for the Wales Air Ambulance. It’s a job I have always wanted to do and to be able to do it is a lifelong dream and achievement so my proudest moment is becoming co-pilot here at Cardiff – especially with the 24-hour operation. It’s a really good job.
"When we are working nights we have got to look out for Santa on his sleigh. Keeping a good lookout is a crew responsibility so everyone in the aircraft will look out for Santa to make sure he has his navigation lights on and we are not going to hit him when we are landing. Keeping a good lookout is priority.”
Critical care practitioner Mike Palmer talked us through how he expects the day to pan out. He said: “A typical day would be a standard day as normal. We’ll come in, get our uniform on, and sort out our kit. Then we’ll prepare the aircraft and the rapid response vehicle so we are ready for the next mission.
“When I’ve worked Christmas Day in the past and when I work Christmas Day in the future, I normally celebrate Christmas Day a couple of days before with family, friends, and loved ones so we have the normal day having presents and food and celebrating it together.”
Looking after animals in need
RSPCA Newport animal centre manager Nikki Tutton said she has worked many Christmases over the last 26 years. She works where animals are kept safely in the hands of dedicated staff and volunteers who are providing them with love and care until they can find their much-needed forever homes.
She said: “As a centre manager it is part of my responsibility alongside the deputy manager to provide the 24-hour cover required. Christmas Day is always joyful. We often have extra volunteers ready to help to do all the cleaning and to ensure every dog gets a little walk and playtime. The dogs and cats even get their own turkey cooked by the staff. Presents are given out by the animal care team. These are suitable toys and treats donated by our wonderful supporters. The dogs especially have a great time tearing off the wrapping paper.
“The team starts their working day an hour early and are then able to get home in time to have some Christmas dinner and time with their family and own pets. The duty manager remains on site in case of an emergency. This can be a little lonely but I enjoy watching all the Christmas TV films and sometimes my husband and my dogs are able to come up and spend the day with me.”
RSPCA deputy chief inspector Gemma Black and animal rescue officer Sian Burton will also both working this Christmas Day. Ms Burton, who has worked for the charity for 17 years, has clocked up around 10 Christmas Day shifts over the years while Ms Black has worked for the animal welfare charity for 15 years.
Ms Black said: “I’ve been very lucky as this is only my third Christmas Day to work. I am hoping it'll be quiet and that all the animals out there will stay safe but it's reassuring to know that we will be there to help anything that becomes sick or injured or any animal welfare emergencies that might come on that day. I do remember one Christmas a while ago when I dealt with an abandoned dog who had been left in a stable. He had no food, water, was thin and cold, and the stable was very dirty. It was a very sad case to deal with on such a celebratory day but the dog went on to be rehomed so it was a happy ending afterwards.”
Keeping us safe at sea
Will Chant officially joined the RNLI St David’s crew on Christmas Eve 1996 which means this year will mark his 26th year on the crew at Christmas although this will be his first as the 16th coxswain at the station. It is something of a family affair for Mr Chant, whose brother Mike is full-time mechanic, and whose father Dai was the 13th coxswain. It means as a family they’ve had much experience of enjoying present unwrapping and Christmas dinner with the pager sat nearby.
The 43-year-old said: "I was 25 and a half years as a volunteer but this is my first Christmas as the coxswain. My predecessor retired and I've come in and taking on the vacancy he left behind. Hopefully Christmas Day will be like most of my other Christmases. I'm pretty limited as a coxswain anyway – I can't go off visiting family up the country, I have to stay in St David's, but I'm very much hoping that I'll be on call but at home with the family on the day.
"We'll be working right up until Christmas, carrying on with training and station admin as we always do, making sure we keep the service operational 24/7. My role is basically being in command of the boat when it is afloat. We take an operational crew of seven and the coxswain is in charge of the safety of the boat and its crew. Station-side I'm in charge of developing the training plans for the crew and the station in general along with my brother who is the wholetime mechanic.
"If my life goes as planned I won't be attending the station – I'll be with my wife Lotte and my son Harri who is 12. The plan is to have a nice quiet Christmas Day. We'll get up, do our presents, have a nice breakfast, go for a walk – hopefully it'll be cool and frosty – and go round check on our animals. We've got some horses. I'll pop and see my dad, who used to be the coxswain before me, and my mum, and then it'll be back home by lunch and spend the day with my family playing games and the new presents and having a Christmas dinner all being well.
"This year has been our busiest year on record. We've done 41 shouts for the year and our previous record was 26. I've never been called out on Christmas Day before. I've had one shout on the day after Boxing Day, one a couple of days before Christmas Eve, so I haven't been directly impacted on Christmas Day. I'm guaranteed to have cursed this now. Touch wood."
Keeping law and order
Emma Jones is a supervisor within South Wales Police's public service centre in Bridgend. She will be in charge of managing the reports which come in on Christmas Day and ensuring that the adequate resource gets assigned to each call that comes in. Working the most festive day of the year will be nothing new for her as she has worked "the majority" of them during her time working there.
"It's the job I applied for," she said. "I'll be working from noon until 10pm. Pretty much my day is work. I will see my family in the morning before I go to work but we're a family used to working shifts. We will celebrate Christmas Day but not necessarily on December 25 – we'll move it to when everyone can make it. For Christmas Day my dad will go to my sister's and I'll catch up with them on another day – it's what we're used to. My sister works in the public service centre as well but works different shift patterns to me so is on a day off. We saw my dad do the same and as a family, from a very young age, we accepted that you've got to put food on the table and it means working hard and if that means working celebration days so be it."
Miss Jones, 47, of Maesteg, plans to put a dinner together for her family between Christmas and new year – in particular for her dad. And there will be a special effort to make sure spirits are up among her team who will be working on the day. She said: "It's about trying to keep morale up whilst you're in work. In previous years the supervisors have put money together and bought people a little something for Christmas Day so there's a bit of fun in the room and they feel appreciated. This year I suggested we did advent calendars for the team as a gesture and it was received really well. It's your work family and when you're spending 10 hours of your day with them on a critical date you want them to feel, even though they're missing out with their loved ones, that the environment is as nice as it can be on the day."
Giving an insight into the type of calls the police usually get on Christmas Day Miss Jones added: "The morning starts off with calls like: 'I hid the presents in the car and the car has been broken into', 'I put presents under the tree in the window and now they're not there', and then you have a bit of a lull whilst people open their presents and visit and then you have the Christmas Dinner period and alcohol consumption and then the demand changes. Then unfortunately we get domestics and it becomes normal business. It can escalate to the point that we are needed. You've also got to remember that Christmas Day is important to some in our community but for others it's just a normal day. It's not a celebration day for some so we've got to cater for those people too. You've got to acknowledge we're a multicultural society and you've got to be there for everybody."
Making sure the elderly and those in need are fed
Eilish Horan is a driver for the Meals on Wheels service for Cardiff council. She'll be working on Christmas Day with eight of her colleagues handing out 200 meals to the elderly and vulnerable in the afternoon.
The 27-year-old, from Roath in Cardiff, said: "Christmas Day we'll aim to deliver our meals between 11.30am and 2pm in the afternoon. We'll be doing our normal turkey dinner with all the trimmings. We've got roughly around 200 meals which we'll be all be delivering through the day. There will be nine of us working on the day. I'm one of the newest here – I've been here for about four months.
"We visit the elderly, vulnerable adults, people with learning difficulties and mental health issues. A lot of people are without families and it's nice to go in and do the usual welfare check. If we didn't go in or carers they may not get a chance to see anyone else on Christmas Day. We try to spend as much time with them as we can but because we're only working for three hours it can be a push but we always try and make enough time to do a welfare check, make sure they are all right, and have a little chat.
"Christmas morning me and my partner will be going on the computer and speaking to his family in Scotland before work. We've got a little niece and we'll watch her opening her presents. I'll be going to work and then straight to see my dad for a little while then going over to my mum's for Christmas Day. She does the best gravy."
Offering a listening ear to those in need
Beatrice, who asked us not to use her surname, works as a wellbeing practitioner for the mental health single point of contact service at Hywel Dda University Health Board. Her job involves providing mental health-related advice and care to anyone within the health board area.
The 24-year-old said: "As a service we assess risk and develop plans to ensure individuals' immediate and longer-term mental health needs are met. The service works closely with both NHS and third sector support services allowing us to signpost and refer individuals to the most appropriate support.
"I will be working a long day on Christmas which comes with its challenges. Being originally from England it is hard knowing that I will be spending the festive period away from my loved ones however I plan to visit and spend time with them over the New Year. Christmas is also a challenging time to be working as it highlights the number of people who feel lonely and isolated over the festive season.
"However working over Christmas is also a heartwarming experience. I am happy knowing that I will be here providing a much-needed service to individuals during a period of restricted service availability. Whether it be supporting someone in crisis or simply being a listening ear I am happy to be part of the wonderful team supporting people this Christmas."
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