Long queues are forming outside the Auckland City Mission, and the mission does not expect them to thin quickly.
The City Missioner, Diane Robertson, said the lines for Christmas parcels first started forming at 4.30am on Monday, the day it began its annual distribution of food parcels and presents.
Today, the line stretched from the mission on Hobson Street to St Matthew's Church a block away.
Auckland City Mission gives out 11,000 parcels over the course of the year and Robertson expects it will hand out about 3000 packages before Christmas alone.