The clean-up from the large earthquakes in the last few days has been largely put on hold, while Cantabrians join the rest of the country celebrating Christmas.
But with the four quakes measuring above 5.0 in the previous two days, there's a distinct earthquake theme to the celebrations.
Anglican churches in Christchurch have held all Christmas services outside, as engineers are yet to inspect their buildings.
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This included a midnight service at All Saints Anglican Church in Prebbleton, and the Christmas Day Service at Saint Mary's Anglican Church in Halswell.
Libby Rowley emailed TVNZ.co.nz, with a photo of their rescue crew gingerbread men.
"It is safe to say the earthquakes have changed lives here in Christchurch, but my family and I were determined not to let it get the best of us this Christmas. Instead we used it as inspiration for our gingerbread men," said Libby.
St Barnabas church in Fendalton, which was badly damaged in the quakes, held a number of services in a giant marquee, as well as outside too, with around 600 people turning out for this morning's masses.
The church still needs to undertake significant repair and strengthening work.
Meanwhile, hundreds of Cantabrians turned up for the City Mission's annual Christmas lunch.
Guests were treated to a Christmas ham with all the trimmings, and Pavlova for dessert.
This year's lunch was held in a giant marquee near the central city red zone.
Are you spending your Christmas in Christchurch? Email us photos or details at news@tvnz.co.nz
There have been 14 more aftershocks in Christchurch today, with the most recent at 5pm measuring 4.1 magnitude, the largest shake today.
Most of the shakes were again centred to the east of the city, north of Lyttelton.
The number of casualties from the the latest large shakes has been relatively small, Christchurch District Healthboard reported.
There has been no deaths.
Parklands mess
In the eastern suburbs, many residents spent yesterday cleaning up liquefaction for the third, fourth or even fifth time this year.
It was announced yesterday that there's the possibility more areas of Christchurch could be red-zoned with Parklands residents saying that they want their land rezoned red once and for all.
The rezone will mean that instead of getting individual geo-tech reports on each property - the whole area would be zoned uninhabitable.
The government has since said that engineers will return to the area in the new year once the water subsides.
Today, the clean-up buzz has subsided, but nearby contractors have donated holiday time to help those without running water.
"I was really surprised to see them. I thought we could do one day without any water, but they've come out from their families and done it for us - it's huge, it's really huge," said resident Cara Davanney.
However, following hours of work the area is still without water.
"We would've love to get your water back on today. We thought we were there, but unfortunately," contractor Colin Hill told ONE News.
The result a dampener for some residents.
"No toilet, no water, I guess we can cook something...," resident Joe Jayet said.
Others pondering their next move.
"It's terrible. I don't think I can go through another one of these. I'm just about ready to pack up and move out," resident Malaine Wealleans told ONE News.
However, there is some welcoming news for those in the area with
council workers delivering a much needed supply of water
tankers.
Repairs
Local authorities in Christchurch had hoped to complete most repairs from the latest earthquakes in time for Christmas Day.
The Earthquake Commission (EQC) has had 1000 calls to its call centre since Friday . The main issues have been chimneys, hot water cylinders and plumbing.
The EQC call centres will be closed Christmas and Boxing Day.
EQC said if people need urgent repairs they will need to organise it themselves, and the commission will reimburse them.
It adds that people don't have to rush to get claims in as it's
a "new event."
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