BRAHMAN and santa cross cattle are the breeds of choice for the Christmas family, and the irony does not escape them.

But Capella graziers Tom and Sylvia Christmas are paying more attention to the skies this holiday season, with rain the only present they want to cap off 2015.

They've lived on their property Gibson Downs for 28 years, and Tom said he hasn't seen conditions this bad in more than a decade.

The ongoing drought has made for a pretty tough few years across the Central Queensland region.

"It's absolutely shocking at the moment," Tom said.

"We have reduced our (cattle) numbers, we probably should have sold some more but we've been holding on hoping it would rain, but that hasn't happened.

"If it hasn't rained by  early January we'll be selling a lot more."

While some sporadic rain has come their way, it hasn't been enough to make much of a difference.

"We've been missing out  on the storms, they've been going around either side of us," Tom said.

"We've had some falls, but not enough to do much good.

"It (the growth) is all  gone now with the heat anyway … it has burnt off by now."

The Christmases mainly breed droughtmaster cattle, but have started putting santa gertrudis cross cattle  in the last few years to "try to put a bit more bone back into the cattle".

"We finish cattle when the season permits, but it hasn't permitted for the last few years," Tom said.