The territory recorded 16 new cases of COVID-19 on Tuesday, bringing the active total to 124, while NSW hit a record with 3057 cases on the same day.

Recent ANU graduate Phoebe Humphreys is planning to go home to Sydney for Christmas on Wednesday. Her family is putting in place strict plans to ensure everyone's safety.

"My parents have bought rapid antigen tests for everyone to take before they come into Christmas lunch, so they'll wait about 10 minutes, and if it comes back negative they'll be allowed inside," Ms Humphreys said.

"The main motivation is to protect my 92-year-old grandmother. We thought to be safe it would be a good idea to test everyone.

"I'm definitely not going to do anything social until Christmas Day, because I don't want to get pinged before the festivities and have to stay in my room isolating while waiting for a test result."

Plans to travel overseas for Christmas are also likely to change for ACT residents. Childcare worker Hannah King is disappointed she will now be unable to travel to Canada, where she is a dual citizen.

"My entire family is from Canada, so I was going to visit my grandma for the first time in about two years ... it being cancelled is pretty devastating," Ms King said.

"Last Friday the province I was going to travel to, Manitoba, started to impose new restrictions, followed by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau advising against any travel.

"I had to cancel everything the day before I was meant to fly out and couldn't get any refunds, only flight credit until October - which I'm not even sure I'll use by then because of how quickly everything changes."

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Ms King said she now plans on having a quiet Christmas in Canberra with her parents, but ultimately feels exhausted by the constant disappointment.

"I was meant to have a gap year last year, but obviously that got cancelled too. I'm just hoping to eventually get to Canada because it's really weird not going to a place that's [been] a part of who I am for so long.

"After Christmas now I'll be home alone because my parents had booked a trip to the Blue Mountains when they thought I'd be in Canada, so it's been a pretty disappointing few years.

"On top of that, I can't work until mid-January because I put leave in anticipating I'd be in Canada, and rosters for childcare are pretty strict - so this cancellation has probably been the biggest disappointment of the year."

People spending long periods away from their home states is becoming an ongoing theme when it comes to the ACT pandemic experience.

Blair Williams says she wonders when she will ever visit her family home in Adelaide again, due to the risks of COVID.

"I don't really want to leave Canberra, which has 98 per cent of the population vaccinated," Dr Williams said.

"It's definitely weird not being home for a big loud Christmas in Adelaide, but for me it's just sacrificing one day of the year for my health, and greater society's health.

"Particularly with Omicron now, I don't even want to get on a plane due to the risks of a new variant."

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