Christmas is a big deal for Townsville woman Glenda Worrall, who dresses her house in lights and her husband as Santa Claus.

But this year the house is dull, having been hit by the floods that devastated parts of the North Queensland city in February.

Her Christmas display — typically one of the best in her suburb, Idalia — has been replaced by a large grey skip bin on the front lawn.

Christmas time at Glenda Worrall's house in 2018. ( Supplied: Glenda Worrall )

The Worrall home, and others on the street, are usually full of joy on December 25 but they will be empty this year.

"It's a bit sad. It would have been nice ... for my grandchildren to come here for Christmas," Mrs Worrall said.

"We were all aiming for Christmas ... It was like this big benchmark of we're all going to be back in our home."

Shelly and Andrew Johnston have been renting a house across the road from their flood-hit Railway Estate home.

They were told they could return by Christmas, so they organised for their children and grandchildren to drive from Sydney to celebrate in their restored home.

Shelly and Andrew Johnston are preparing their rental home for Christmas. ( ABC North Queensland: Sofie Wainwright )

Now, they have been told it will not be ready in time, so the couple is hiring a camper trailer to fit the family.

"It just deflates you. It depresses you," Mr Johnston said.

"It's now going to be a very temporary Christmas, where we've just got to try and make do with what we can."

The budget is tighter too.

They have been cranking the air conditioning in their rental house, which does not have solar power like their home, and the pair have forked out for temporary appliances while the flash ones wait in storage.

Doctors say preparing for Christmas in a different or damaged home may affect residents' mental health. ( Supplied: Nick Gatehouse )

Unfamiliar Christmas hits home

It has been a mentally draining year for Townsville.

Local GP Michael Clements said every day his consult room was full of people under flood-related stress.

"Sometimes that tips over into a true disorder, so a true depression, anxiety or post-traumatic stress," Dr Clements said.

"What we're seeing is people still slogging it out ... under the pressure, and I haven't really seen a change in that."

Many residents cannot return home or have their properties completely repaired before year's end.

The Queensland Reconstruction Authority said figures from October indicated that repairs had not started on about 540 of the 1,800 properties that remained damaged, with 740 still uninhabitable.

Figures from the Insurance Council of Australia show about 80 per cent of the 13,200 home building claims had been closed.

Dr Michael Clements in what had been one of his patient rooms in February. ( ABC Western Queensland: Kelly Butterworth )

Dr Clements said many people might find it mentally taxing knowing that Christmas "won't be the same".

"I think our culture and community places a lot of significance around Christmas at home, and unfortunately for many that's just not going to happen," he said.

"If they're still not in their home, if they're still in dispute with insurance companies, if they're still suffering under that pressure, I think we're going to feel it more acutely."

Clinical psychologist Liezel Gordon said clients had expressed frustration and disappointment that they would not be in their homes this festive season.

But not achieving that goal was not all bad, she said.

"In many ways, it's kept people going and kept people hopeful, but I think now there's another period of adjustment."

Tighter funds this year

Sandra Elton, manager of the North Townsville Community Hub, said the floods had put additional financial strain on residents this Christmas, and it was affecting their mental health.

She said the hub had seen a larger number of people seeking emergency relief this November and December compared with previous years because of the monsoon.

"We're seeing, particularly the early weeks of December, unprecedented demand that we haven't seen since the early days of the flood."

Sandra Elton says demand for services are higher than usual because of the ongoing effect of the monsoon. ( ABC North Queensland: Sofie Wainwright )

Ms Elton said ongoing financial pressures from the floods included underinsurance and replacing damaged items.

"We've got a lot of low income and traditionally vulnerable people who had to shell out for a fridge or a washing machine, and that can take years for someone to recover from," she said.

"We've seen a recent presentation of the mental health impact in traditional blokey-blokes ... because [they're] not able to provide Christmas for [their] family.

"That's affecting their own feelings of worth."

'It's always frantic this time of year'

Dr Clements said tradespeople were feeling the pressure too.

"We're actually seeing the tradies really burning out physically, actually trying to meet the needs of the community," he said.

"The tradies want you to get into your house before Christmas just as much as you do.

"They're under increased pressure, they're working longer hours, seven days a week.

"They're spending less time with their families, some of them use alcohol to sleep."

Veterans and civilians have been volunteering to fix flood-affected homes. ( ABC North Queensland: Sofie Wainwright )

Emma Peters, regional manager of Master Builders North Queensland, said she was not aware of the trend, though it was not surprising.

"I can imagine the pressure that the tradies would be under," Ms Peters said.

"It's always frantic at this time of year, and it is more so due to the emotion for those homeowners who are having flood repair work completed after the monsoon event."

Volunteers fixing homes

Despite the struggles, community resilience and support remains strong.

Over the past five weeks, about 50 ex-Defence personnel and civilians have fixed five flood-affected homes belonging to residents whose insurance was denied.

The pilot program, called Operation Townsville Assist, is a partnership with veteran hub The Oasis Townsville and the Salvation Army through a State Government grant.

Volunteers have been demolishing and painting walls and building kitchens, shelves and cupboards.

Floss Foster says fixing damaged homes by Christmas is lifting spirits. ( ABC North Queensland: Sofie Wainwright )

The Oasis director Floss Foster said more than 1,000 volunteer hours had saved the home owners more than $50,000.

"I think all the people that we've helped have struggled," Ms Foster said.

"It's been a long, tough year for them and you only have to drive around in some of the suburbs to still see it looks like a battle zone.

"One gentlemen we helped ... he'd been living in his garage for 10 months.

"This is uplifting ... it allows them to roll into the New Year really in a positive mental state."

Residents meet regularly to give each other support and advice during the recovery. ( ABC North Queensland: Sofie Wainwright )

And it is not just those in Townsville who continue to recover, with farmers in north-west Queensland, who collectively lost hundreds of thousands of cattle in the floods, now battling drought.

"I can't wait for 2020 to get here ... we can start afresh and there's something to look forward to moving back into our new house," Mrs Johnston said.

Support is available for people affected by the floods via the Community Recovery Hotline (1800 173 349) and Townsville Disaster Recovery Team (07 4433 8378).