By Carolyn Webb
They are the Santa’s little helpers, forgoing festivities to keep the state running.
While many of us will spend Wednesday unwinding with loved ones, the work of certain professions – from emergency services teams to hospital workers, hospitality staff and vets – goes on.
Merry Christmas: Dr Meg Curnick tends a kookaburra at Healesville Sanctuary.Credit: Justin McManus
There are people to help, diners to feed, patients to tend, sick wildlife to heal, and planes, trains and trams to send on their way.
Healesville Sanctuary’s public exhibits will be open on Christmas Day, and staff will be on hand in the sanctuary’s clinic for a kookaburra with a crook wing or a kangaroo hit by a car.
As vet Dr Meg Curnick puts it: “The animals don’t know it’s Christmas.”
Curnick, who has postponed her family gathering to Boxing Day, says those working at Christmas have a special camaraderie.
Coming right up: Paul Scidone at La Camera restaurant in Southgate.Credit: Joe Armao
Paul Scidone, a manager at La Camera Italian restaurant, has found a unique way to keep his relatives happy while he works on the special day.
More than 10 of them will be at the Southgate venue on Christmas Day, including his brother, Lino, the restaurant’s owner, and their parents, Chiara and Antonio.
Chiara’s recipes for pork belly, lasagne and bolognese feature on the four-course, sold-out lunch menu.
Scidone will be master of ceremonies, ensuring guests are happy and chatting to people.
Going places: Sharon Godkin is a terminal co-ordinator at Melbourne Airport on Christmas Day.Credit: Justin McManus
The role of Sharon Godkin, a Melbourne Airport terminal co-ordinator, takes in everything from handling medical emergencies to unblocking thoroughfares or answering questions from passers-by.
Her 12-hour shift will start at 5am, and she is expecting to walk 24,000 steps, or 18 kilometres, keeping passengers heading in the right direction.
Godkin says Christmas Day feels different to other days, with people wishing each other Merry Christmas, as she hands out lollies to kids excited about visiting relatives.
“It’s a good vibe,” she says.
Caring Christmas: Dr Carl Luckhoff pictured in The Alfred hospital’s emergency department.Credit: Joe Armao
A Melbourne Airport spokesperson says the airport expects to handle 97,000 passengers on Christmas Day for about 600 scheduled flights.
The one person you don’t want to see on Wednesday is Dr Carl Luckhoff, deputy director of emergency at The Alfred hospital.
Luckhoff says working on Christmas Day comes with the job for essential services workers, but staff try to maintain a festive spirit.
They wear Christmas-themed scrubs and hats, hang decorations, and there’s a tree. They also bring dips and chips, chocolates and cakes to eat on breaks.
Last year, the hospital, in Prahran in Melbourne’s inner south-east, handled 158 patients on Christmas Day, and Luckhoff says it usually gets busier later in his 2pm to midnight shift.
Tram driver Brinelle Vieyra will start work bright and early in Caulfield at 5.45am, and says she has never come across a rude passenger on Christmas Day.
“Most people are in good spirits,” she says.
Vieyra will celebrate with her daughter, 15, and son, 10, after 2pm knock-off and also on Boxing Day, and chat online with her parents and twin sisters, who live in Canada.
Vieyra says that while working on Christmas Day is not ideal, it won’t be every year and “somebody’s got to do it”.
“Somebody’s got to keep the city moving. This year, it’s my turn,” she says.