As Cliff Richard sang, for most of us, Christmastime means mistletoe and wine. Up early with the family, a good hearty dinner of turkey and all the trimmings, then falling asleep in front of a big blockbuster movie on TV a few glasses of wine later. The toughest challenge for most of us is deciding which set of in-laws to visit or how to keep Uncle Glynn away from the port.
We finish work on Christmas Eve and most of us will not return until the New Year. But not everyone is so lucky; there are a huge number of jobs that carry on regardless, twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, all year round. These are the people we never really think about, yet we count on them being there when we need them, even on Christmas Day.
How many people work on Christmas Day?
From your local hospital to your corner shop, from the restaurant you choose for Christmas dinner to the coastguard looking out for you as you walk it all off again along the coastal path, there are endless people working quietly in the background over the festive period. The Office for National Statistics estimates that 3.3% of the UK workforce will be working on Christmas Day, which is just over a million people. Around a third of these will be medical staff, including 179,000 care workers and healthcare assistants, 77,000 nurses and 15,000 doctors. There’s also fire, police, RNLI and other emergency services, plus around 26,000 members of the clergy, who will be busier than ever with all those once-a-year churchgoers. And that’s before you count all those unusual Christmas Day jobs that you might not think of.
Medical staff and care workers
Illness and accidents don’t take Christmas off, and so neither do the staff at over ninety hospitals in Wales. As many patients as possible are allowed home, but many have to remain in hospital, and the numbers increase all the time as people are taken ill, get injured or even go into labour. Working as a midwife over the festive season is one of the most rewarding jobs, welcoming those special Christmas babies. However, for others elsewhere in the hospital, it can be a traumatic time as drink driving, poor weather and increased alcohol consumption drive up the number of serious injuries coming through A&E.
Emergency services
The emergency services are extra busy over Christmas, especially the fire service. One in three fires in Wales over Christmas is caused by unattended cooking, as people return from a boozy night out and try to make themselves a snack. Add in a huge increase in candle use, as well as overloaded sockets and cheap fairy lights, and it’s easy to see what keeps our fire crews so busy. Yet with just a little common sense, we could all play our part in giving these heroes a quieter time this year.
Mountains and coasts
Of course, it’s not just the fire and medical services that are on call over Christmas. The other emergency services can be just as busy. The RNLI continue to watch our coasts, even while the rest of us are celebrating, and they are being called out more and more to festive emergencies. Welsh lifeboats have seen a 187% increase in call-outs since 2008, with 23 calls in 2018 compared to just nine in 2008. Mountain Rescue services are also seeing increased calls, as milder winters encourage people out and about during their break. It may not be a full-time job, but hundreds of workers and volunteers will be staying sober and carrying a pager with them, ready to help out at a moment’s notice if they are needed.
Search and rescue
As well as the RNLI and Mountain Rescue, there are a number of other search and rescue services on call over Christmas, covering emergencies both at home and abroad. Christmas can be a tough time for many people, and police and search teams are regularly called out to look for people who have gone missing. In the depth of winter, this can be a real race against time, especially if the missing person is elderly and confused. Other rescuers are waiting on standby for deployment around the world with the Thunderbirds-sounding International Rescue Corps. As the Boxing Day Tsunami in 2004 showed us, nature doesn’t care that it’s Christmas, and these teams have to be ready to help anytime.
Unusual Christmas roles
Not all Christmas jobs involve emergencies though; some are just roles that never stop, all year round. From keeping our lights on to reporting the news, from pulling your Christmas pint to feeding the animals at your local zoo, there are a million people working on Christmas day helping to keep us warm and safe, fed and watered. From North Sea oil platforms, to your local petrol station, from farmers tending their cattle and sheep to your local shop opening for a few hours to sell you the batteries you forgot to put in the new toys, they are all playing their part in your Christmas.
How you can help
So what can we do to help these heroes as they set out for work on Christmas Day? Many people in the hospitality industry, in restaurants and pubs, clubs and land-based casinos, will be working, but you could give them a break by cooking for yourself, throwing a house party and drinking at home, or playing your casino games online instead. Your food and drink will be much cheaper and even your gaming could be better value with an Oddschecker casino bonus. The waiters, bar staff and croupiers will still have to work, but you’ll make their shift a little easier and less crowded.
Similarly, we can all take a little extra care over Christmas to give our emergency services a break. Get a takeaway instead of risking cooking late at night. Check your tree lights are safe and powered sensibly. Be careful when you go out for a walk and never drink and drive.
Our million-strong Christmas workforce may not have much choice about working Christmas Day, but we have a choice to help them out. So spare a thought for Wales’ Christmas workers and try to make their lives a little easier this festive season. That way we can all enjoy a very merry Christmas.
