Santa won’t be the only person expected at Mount Airy homes on Christmas Eve — city sanitation crews also will be picking up trash Monday, covering routes that normally would be serviced on Tuesday.

Having the Christmas Day trash picked up one day early is among several changes officials have made in response to the holiday.

In addition to regular garbage collections, the Tuesday recycling route will be conducted on Monday. While city personnel usually pick up trash according to regular schedules — or at most, one day late when holidays occur — officials want residents to be aware of the fact that this will be done one day earlier this time around.

However, no Monday yard-waste collections will occur on Christmas Eve, which also will be the case for New Year’s Eve a week later.

Meanwhile, Monday’s commercial and industrial routes will be run on the normal schedules. Tuesday’s pickups for those those two services are scheduled for Wednesday instead, due to Christmas.

City offices will be closed both Monday and Tuesday for the holiday.

Recycling Reminder

City residents also are being reminded that gift-wrap materials should not be placed in recycling bins, but in regular trash receptacles instead.

This includes both paper and ribbons, which can be problematic during the processing phase for recyclables.

Gift wrap tends to be a poor grade of paper, along with wax-coated or made of foil, which can deteriorate in the equipment that also can be clogged by ribbons.

Other types of packaging associated with Christmas are acceptable, including cardboard boxes and cartons as well as “cereal-type” boxes. The plastic packaging that some products come in also can be recycled, such as cellophane and blister-pack material.