Christmas time is the chance to celebrate family and friends while reflecting on the year ahead.
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But for many hardworking and dedicated members of the community, their professions mean they can spend Christmas a little differently.
For police, it is certainly a busy time of year, and means Christmas day can be spent helping other families while being away from their own.
Chief Inspector John Wadsworth says even though on duty officers are away from family, the station has their own little traditions to make the day special.
“The crew that is working, their families will come in for a while unless its busy, and we’ll have some Christmas cake or a nice Christmas lunch out the back in our meal room,” he said.
Christmas night is generally fairly busy with domestic incidents, and he encourages residents to be respectful of everyone.
“What happens is that the day starts of really well, all the families get on really well, but as the day progresses, quite often we get families that are mixing for the first time in a long time and some old issues will come to a head, especially because Christmas means not just food, but alcohol as well.”
“I’m not here to be the social police but if they remember to be respectful of everyone during the Christmas period, and take it a little bit easy, everyone will have a great day.”
Chief Inspector Wadsworth said working Christmas day is part and parcel of being a cop, but no-one complains.
“The comradery everyone feels is definitely a benefit of working, and those who are working make the most out of it.”
“If they are working day shift they can go home and celebrate that night, and if they are working night-shift they can celebrate during the day.”
For him though, it’s all about the kids.
“It’s their time really, and also catching up with family with a great lunch and a nice cold beer.”
There area also always concerns of fatalities on the roads, with a large amount of people on the roads travelling to visit their loved ones.
“This is an opportunity for us to also acknowledge that we know we are getting paid for our job, but there are so many volunteers in our community who do so much, for example if there is a tragic accident on Christmas, yes we are called out as part of our job, but volunteers are also called out when they are home having lunch with their family.”
“Leading into the new year period, its a time when most people hook into the alcohol, and you don’t want to be crowned the village idiot, but you wont be playing up because you’ll be in the cells.”