The expectations to provide presents and elaborate dinners during the holiday period can put pressure on already struggling families.
Luckily, Dunedin’s social agencies have made it easy for residents to give them a hand.
The main port of call in the city proper is Kmart’s wishing tree.
People can give gifts here, inside the shop’s entrance, which are distributed to families in need by the Salvation Army.
Kmart’s Dawn Barnes, who is in charge of the project, said donations were about half what they were last year.
At the weekend there were just more than 1000 presents, compared with more than 2000 at the corresponding time last year.
‘‘We’re grateful for each and every gift we’re given.’’
The gifts could be for anyone from babies to grandparents, but teenage boys were a bracket often forgotten, she said.
Gifts did not need to be bought at the store.
Salvation Army Dunedin ministry leader David McKenzie said a pressure was created from the heightened expectations to give gifts around Christmas, which hit low-income families.
For people living on the Taieri Plain, there is another wishing tree, run by the Rotary Club of Taieri and ANZ.
It is stationed inside the bank with tags which locals can attach to presents and give to the Mosgiel foodbank.
Foodbank co-ordinator Michelle Kerr said it hoped to gather about 300 gifts for its Christmas parcels this year, but had some ‘‘gaps’’.
‘‘It has been a bit slow this year. For the ages 9 to 11 we’re lacking in both genders.’’
The third major drive is the Dunedin Christian Helping Agencies Group’s Christmas hampers.
The group is made of Salvation Army, Presbyterian Support Otago, Methodist Mission, Catholic Social Services, and Anglican Family Care.
It provides 300 families with food and gifts.
Residents can either give money directly towards the hampers, or give items to go in them, which can be donated at most of the agencies directly.
Presbyterian Support Otago's Family Works practice manager Deb Gelling said they were coming into a busy period for receiving donations.
‘‘We get some amazing contributions from the community.’’
Anything needed for Christmas meals was helpful, such as meringues, Christmas tarts, chickens and vegetables.
They were also always in need of the staples.
Aside from the combined group’s effort, many social agencies are organising their own initiatives.
St Vincent de Paul Dunedin centre and pastoral manager Sarah Strang said it created 100 Christmas food parcels for clients, to which the public could give.
‘‘We’d be really grateful.’’
In a similar vein to other agencies, it tended to get a lot of presents for younger girls, but some other age brackets were lacking.
‘‘We’re definitely running low.’’
