A very Kiwi Christmas.

Hi, Leiha has invited me to guest blog about what Christmas is like here in New Zealand.

Christmas is such a special time for our family. Here in New Zealand we don't have a Thanks Giving celebration so Christmas is the big event of the year for us. I know preparations need to start as the temperature starts to get warmer and daylight savings means the days get longer. The Pohutukawa Trees start coming into bloom in mid to late December. These are known as the New Zealand Christmas Tree, they are a native coastal plant that bloom red. I start wearing my shorts and advertisements for bikinis and budgie smugglers start to appear on the telly. Events like 'Christmas in the Park' happen around the country where families take picnic dinners out for the evening and listen to carols whilst sitting on a blanket snacking and drinking wine. The evenings are so warm by now that this is a lovely event. For the less social types fantastic end of year Christmas specials appear on telly for Coronations Street and also for our local homegrown soap Shortland Street, ever popular!

I am a Christmas geek and if I can get my way will have the Christmas Tree up on the 1st of December if not before. Usually around that time I am in the middle of writing kids end of year reports and I reward myself with Christmas Card writing when I have done about 1/2 of them, sad I know!!! I post all my Christmas cards super early, unless you are Leiha, in which case it takes another whole year and much embarrassment before it goes!! LOL!!

School finishes around the 20th of December for me and my 14 year old son, who is now at High School, finishes a week before. Because we are now going into summer we have about 6/7 weeks off and don't go back until the 1st week of February. Our summer holiday; Marvelous! The days get longer and hotter (unless NZ is in the middle of an El Nino weather pattern in which case it will probably be windy, cold and generally crappy. But we don't like to talk about that!). We have started sleeping with the windows wide open as it is so hot and end up with some fantastic mossie bites as a result. We are also have to slather ourselves in suntan lotion too, due to the hole in the ozone layer down here you can burn in less than twenty minutes. Sun smart, ‘Slip, Slap, Slop’ advertisements for this are also apparent on telly and in shops. The Christmas shopping frenzy starts and transactions in the shops around the country are starting to get to over 400 per second on eftpos. Going into town you need to gird your loins for battle! I went early this morning and left quickly, to many fierce looking women on missions!!

On Christmas eve we usually sit in the lounge or on the deck with the Christmas lights on and a glass of wine in hand. Everyone is on holiday now. The US tradition of lighting up your house has made its way here so we also often go for a drive to look at the spectacular houses when it gets dark. Before the kids are asleep there is a flurry of activity to prepare for Father Christmas. In my family we usually leave some of the following out for him: Christmas Mince Pies, a can of beer, Christmas Cake or some Chocolates. My step mum often got cotton wool and left bits of it down the hall to imitate snow.

In the morning the kids are usually up at the crack of dawn. We get up and sit round in our jammies and open all the presents. In my husbands family they don't open presents until the dishes are done after lunch. This is somewhat more restraint than I have!!! We always tell our son Ben we cannot get him whatever it is he wants, usually the, "We're too broke and Mum spent all the money on books" excuse is a goodie. Then we secretly get some big surprises and hide them. He is always astonished and we just love it. He is so hard to buy for as he never really wants anything when we ask!

Food. For most kiwis it is a time of utter excess!! When we go to my husband’s parents we have a huge lunch of ham on the bone, turkey, peas, roast veggies, carrots, new potatoes and salads. Followed by dessert of the Kiwi classic Pavlova (Don't let any Aussies tell you it was invented over there, it was here and that’s all I'll say on the matter) with fresh fruit salad, trifle, ambrosia and jelly! The afternoon is a time to have a nap as we are all by this time rather corpulent!! At night we always have barbeque of steak, chicken kebabs and fresh salads. This year we are having ham, roast boned out leg of lamb stuffed with bacon, mushrooms and other yummies (mums making that one), salads, roast veggies and peas. I like peas! And after we have finished dessert you'll have to roll us all away from the table. Steve's Mum makes nibbles like apricot balls or rum balls and the most divine Christmas Cake. We have chippies and dip to snack on, Roses chocolates for a bit of extra sweet. When people first settled here in New Zealand there were no geese, so roast mutton was on the menu and is often referred to as Christmas Goose. Sheep are in rather plentiful supply here!

There is usually a game of cricket down at the local park during the day. One year we wore out the foot pads of Honey the dog as she chased the ball so much! To fill in the evening we have games of cards and play board games. As a Commonwealth country the Queens message is on the telly in the evening and we usually sit down to watch that (Steve’s Mum and Nan insist!) Boxing day is much the same with more eating and maybe some shopping as the sales start. After the 3rd of January many people go back to work and its all over for another year.

Christmas in New Zealand is about enjoying time in the sun with family. It also marks the start of the summer holiday season with January being the traditional time of year to head to the beach or lake.

I hope you all have a very merry Christmas and a wonderful new year.

Sarah.

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About Sarah

I love to eat and sleep. One thing is more fun to blog about than the other. In between eating and sleeping I love to travel, spend time with my family and talk about myself. :)