City Missions around the country say Christmas will be the busiest day of the year for most of their members.
The organisations are staging annual community Christmas lunches and gift-giving.
The City Mission in Christchurch has 150 volunteers preparing lunch for an anticipated 650 people.
A missioner, Michael Gorman, says they've been working since October and he is expecting their busiest year ever.
In Auckland, the mission has about 500 volunteers preparing lunch for up to two and a half thousand people.
A spokesperson for the Auckland City Mission, Liam Willis, says they're busy cooking 240kg of chicken, 240kg of ham and another 240kg of potatoes.
