Christmas Day for most people means spending the day with family or friends, opening presents and recovering from the food coma brought on by a large lunch.
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But for some Canberrans, December 25 is just another day at the office.
A different type of Christmas feast
Rachael Thomas has a rather unusual start to her Christmas Day: she has to give insulin injections to a diabetic capuchin monkey.
The task, however, is easier than it sounds.
"It took about a year for the monkey to learn what to do, but now it's done like clockwork, and she knows it's just a routine for her," she said.
Ms Thomas has worked at the Australian National Zoo and Aquarium for eight years and has been team leader in the primates section for the past two.
While Christmas Day is the only day of the year the zoo isn't open to the public, keepers are still on hand to take care of the many animals.
"It's a very different day, all we do is feeding. We don't do any cleaning [of enclosures] but when it's Boxing Day, there's double the amount of poo to clean up," she said.
"It's very quiet at the zoo and the animals are a bit thrown off because the routine is different."
As part of a normal day of work at the zoo, keepers are usually assigned a section of animals to look after, which for Ms Thomas includes the zoo's many monkeys and lemurs.
However on Christmas Day keepers work across three different sections, helping to keep the animals fed and watered ahead of a busy holiday period.
As part of Christmas Day planning, double the amount of food has to be prepared for the animals on Christmas Eve, to ensure food is ready on December 25 as well as Boxing Day.
While Ms Thomas will be sitting down for a Christmas lunch after her morning shift, the zoo's residents will also be tucking into theirs.
"The food is normally the same, but we give them things they wouldn't normally get in their daily diet," she said.
"The capuchins get treats with some peanut butter and some presents with food in them."
'Same levels of service'
In an ideal Christmas, you won't need to make a visit to Dr David Lamond, but if you do, you'll be in safe hands.
The doctor is the emergency staff specialist at Canberra Hospital, who is working his 17th Christmas Day.
"Every other industry shuts down on Christmas Day, but we provide the same levels of service as any other day," he said.
While Christmas Day tends to be a quieter day in the emergency department than most, Dr Lamond said patient trends were usually the same.
"Usually the workload tends to ramp up from 11 in the morning and then runs hot until 2 or 3am the next morning, and then things usually quiet down," he said.
"On Christmas, we also find the morning to be quiet and then it starts to get busy on Christmas afternoon."
The emergency doctor said while there were some cases at the hospital on Christmas that were common throughout the year, there were still some festive-related injuries.
"Most Christmases we see one or two parents trying out their child's new skateboard or scooter and end up with broken arms or legs," Dr Lamond said.
"Most of the other stuff is the high-end stuff, things like strokes and heart attacks, and that doesn't change much on Christmas Day."
Normal levels in the hospital are expected to pick up again from Boxing Day.
Despite the emergency room not usually being the most festive of locations, Dr Lamond said there's still large amounts of Christmas cheer for those who happen to be in hospital on December 25.
"People tend to dress up, there's lots of Santa hats and reindeer ears, and the doctors wear colourful clothes, rather than the standard green," he said.
Busiest time of year
Christmas Day is one of Reverend David Campbell's busiest work days for the year.
As a senior minister at St Andrew's Presbyterian Church in Forrest, work on the many Christmas Day masses begins late on Christmas Eve.
Sleep, he said, was a luxury.
"I get very little sleep, about three hours at the most," he said.
"You're working overtime and you go onto autopilot and then you just crash on Christmas afternoon."
Mr Campbell is responsible for the church's three Christmas services, the first taking place at 11pm on Christmas Eve, ending on the stroke of midnight on Christmas Day.
The reverend is also running two services back-to-back on Christmas morning.
"There's an amazing lot of preparation for these services. One of the great traditions going back many years is our choral tradition, and the organist and the choir have a very important role to play," he said.
"Christmas Eve is our second biggest service for the year. The only other times that compare with the workload is the period leading up until Easter."
Mr Campbell said while many regular churchgoers at St Andrew's were away from Canberra at Christmas, there's still a large increase in the number of people who attend the services.
"We have a lot of people who only come to church at one time in a year, for some it's on Christmas Eve, others make a big effort on Christmas Day," he said.
"There's a huge number of people who come to Christmas services who are not regulars."
As well as the church services, Mr Campbell said there were many in the church community who will spend the day helping those less fortunate or without family.
"It's very important that throughout December that there's a lot of us spending time with people and also visiting the elderly as well," he said.
This will be the fourth Christmas that Mr Campbell will be overseeing Christmas proceedings, and while for the first half of the day it will be all systems go, the second half, he said, will be spent with relatives.
"It's very important for me to come from the Christmas services and be with my own family at that point," he said.
