And he is – during December he'll host receptions for the cathedral's 75 staff, its muscians, its servers (volunteers who help services run smoothly) – and many more.

Because as the public 'face' of the cathedral, the Dean, Charles Taylor, is expected to throw the parties and thank everyone for the hard work they have put in over the year.

Feature: Have a thought for those working at Christmas
Jemma Walton meets some of the people working over the Christmas period.
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But his December is far from one long party, because he'll also be grafting in the pulpit: which is no mean feat.

During the run-up to Christmas Day he'll be working on Sunday, December 23, Christmas Eve on Monday, which will involve an early morning service, a carol service at 4pm and a massive carol concert with the Salvation Army at 8pm. This will be followed by a midnight communion.

On Christmas Day itself he'll be taking the 8am Holy Communion, a family sung communion at 10am and choral matins at 11.30am, followed by choral evensong at 3.30pm.

Phew. And he'll be fitting all this around eating his Christmas dinner, which he'll do in two sittings: "Taking the choral evensong bloated like a balloon wouldn't make for the most spiritual of experiences," he said.

"And so I'll have my Christmas dinner before and my pudding afterwards."

And it's not just the Christmas holidays that will see him working intensely, because the whole of December is demanding. As well as overseeing the 75 services the cathedral holds each month, there will be another 11 or so major seasonal services which he'll be expected to attend, if not lead.

"I get a third of a day off here, a third of a day off there during December," he said. "The trouble with being a Dean is that you never stop being who you are."

He has two children, Ben and Rachel, who'll be staying in the deanery over Christmas, as will his wife's sister and her family.

"My working over Christmas used to be worse when my children were younger, and didn't quite understand why you didn't want them hopping about on your bed at 6am when you'd got to bed at 2am," he said. "But now they're 23 and 19 it tends to be us waking them up on Christmas morning."

Does being constantly busy mean he has enough time to properly appreciate the true meaning of Christmas?

"I think about it all the time, really," he said. "But I have pencilled in one day during December to write my sermons, and a lot of my reflection and quiet thought will happen then.

"Plus I lead morning communion in the Cathedral at 7.20am six days a week, and that gives me a lot of time to think."

After nearly 24 hours on his feet in public, the dean will finish at around 4.30pm on Christmas day and will go to bed early to recuperate.

"I've got Boxing Day off, when I'll go and see my dad, who is 86, and was a vicar himself," he said.

"I come from a clergy household and was a cathedral chorister, and so working over Christmas isn't a hardship – it wouldn't be Christmas if I wasn't working, and it's a pleasure and a joy rather than a chore."