The traditional sounds of choral voices merged with comments on climate change as Dunedin churches enjoyed strong turnouts for services of Christmas Day and Christmas Eve.
Churches contacted yesterday reported large crowds and a mixture of young, old and tourists at their services.
There was not a spare seat to be found at St Joseph's Cathedral on Thursday night, as about 450 people turned out for midnight Mass, Fr John Harrison said.
"It was overflowing. All the seats were taken and people were standing . . . I was very, very happy with that," he said
Another 100 people attended Mass at 7.30am yesterday, followed by another 325 people who turned out for Mass at 10am, he said.
The crowds included a "significant number" of younger people, and tourists, including about 12 Germans who were not travelling together, but found each other within the crowd at the Christmas Eve midnight Mass, he said.
Knox Church was "comfortably full" for the carols and candlelight service on Christmas Eve, with about 800 people attending and crowds gathering well before the scheduled 10pm start, Rev Dr Sarah Mitchell said.
The evening featured an hour-long choral performance from 10pm, followed by a candlelight service from 11.30pm to see in Christmas Day, she said.
Another 150 people attended the Christmas Day service from 10am.
"We focused on the fact Jesus brings hope, peace, joy and love and the possibility that this can happen for us, no matter where we are in our circumstances today," she said.
Included in the service was a telling of old and new Christmas stories - from the Gospel of Luke to Applesauce and the Christmas Miracle, a tale of hope by author Glenda Millard, which emerged from last year's Australian bushfires.
There were also Christmas Eve carols and Christmas Day services at First Church, St Paul's Cathedral and at other churches around Dunedin.
About 50 people also attended the Salvation Army Christmas service at 9.30am yesterday, which included carols and a retelling of the first Christian service in New Zealand by the Rev Samuel Marsden in 1814, Major Kingsley Sampson said.
Fr Harrison said the message delivered to the St Joseph's crowd - by Bishop Colin Campbell - was a reflection on the biblical story of Mary and Joseph being turned away from the inn.
He asked whether Christ today was also being told there was "no room at the inn" of modern life, due to "unscrupulous profiteering", and whether rich nations and major global polluters gave a similar message to smaller, poorer nations when it came to climate change.
