Christmas is coming - In the first part of our festive season special, we examine holidays, holiday working and remuneration. We find that the vast majority of workplaces covered in our survey will be closed for normal business on Christmas Day, Boxing Day and New Year's Day. In addition, many of our respondents say that their workplaces will close on other days around the public holidays. However, not all employees will be able to enjoy time off over Christmas. Many essential workers, such as nurses and other health professionals, will be expected either to go to work or to be on standby over the holiday period. According to our respondents, it could also be a busy - although well rewarded - time for other groups, such as IT specialists, maintenance staff and some production workers. Our analysis focuses on: Christmas-New Year shutdowns; rules governing when annual leave may be taken; public holiday working arrangements, and employee groups affected; E compensation provisions for staff required to work during the public holidays, and how these may change when one or more of the seasonal public holidays is reassigned from a weekend to a subsequent weekday; and standby and call-out arrangements, the employee groups affected and the compensation offered.