The Society of Saint Vincent de Paul say requests for help is set to exceed 250,000 this year.
The charity have launched its annual appeal, urging public support for families under pressure.
This year's theme, 'The Wonder of Christmas', reflects the rising calls from people 'wondering' how they will put food on the table, keep homes warm, and afford toys this December.
SVP National President Teresa Ryan who is a native of Ballybay says this Christmas, too many parents are wondering how they'll manage the basics.
At the end of October the number of calls for requests for help were up 7% on last year, and they expect overall requests for 2025 to exceed 250,000.
Teresa says the appeal asks the public to share the wonder of Christmas by helping families with the essentials-food on the table, a warm home and a little joy for children.
She told Northern Sound: "Our requests have already exceeded 250,000 this year already, so it's up 7% there is an increase in the need and the demand for support and help has increased. We don't hear enough about about the cost of living and the food shopping, the cost of food has gone up, like, personally, a basket or trolley food for family of five might have cost 100 euro, and now cost 200 euros.
"So it really doubled. But people with social welfare coming in and nobody working, they wouldn't be able to even get a trolley food. Sometimes they're just living from day to day, like you know you could go into a house and there was no fire, there was nothing in the fridge, and there was no electricity and this wouldn't have been the most needy. This is one of the stories that you can see and hear when you visit a house. You might hear about it on the phone when they ring in for help, but the fact that we can do a home visitation and sit at the table with the person and they feel comfortable, and that we can have the conversation and particular concerns and worries are heard. Families are really struggling."
