Feels like Christmas!

[TheBriscoesLady]

I'm outside in the garden, kids are in the paddling pool, it's lovely and hot and I'm avidly reading the Christmas topic, thread by thread whilst drinking rose

I'm a New Zealander living in the UK and this sort of weather is making me feel all Christmassy. Not to mention homesick for a good old kiwi Christmas.

I would love to be wrapping presents right now and decorating the pavlova!

[VioletBam]

Ah! And I'm a Brit in Oz....currently feeling Christmassy in the chilly winter! So weird!

This Christmas coming will be my second in the country...last year I was a bit freaked out by how quiet the shops were in the run up! I was also confused over deserts....so Pavlova is the traditional thing is it?

[TheBriscoesLady]

You can't beat a pav at Christmas. Aussies will no doubt decorate theirs differently, but a NZ pav will be smothered in whipped cream with strawberries and kiwifruit arranged artfully on top. It was always my job to do the pavlova and I loved it! We also had cheesecake, fruit salad and trifle as standard puddings.

[ImperialBlether]

That's as far from our horrible Christmas puddings as you can get! What are you doing, having puddings people actually like on Christmas Day?!

[Chillywhippet]

How about this?

[TheBriscoesLady]

That wreath pav is great. I did make something similar one year but it's just not the same!

My DB always loved Christmas pudding as a youngster (like 7 years old, the freak) so mum would get him a single serve one and he'd have that with custard. But it was too hot for hot puddings so the rest of us liked cold, creamy puddings and I loved having them as leftovers for days afterwards.

[pearlylum]

It must be odd to have a hot christmas.
The roots of the festival lie in the frozen Northern world, hence many traditions of pine trees, holly, eating dried fruits Santa with his big suit on driving through the snow,
I lived in SE Asia for a while and no one around us was celebrating christmas, so we didn't either, it didn't feel right feel right somehow,

[TheBriscoesLady]

Feels completely natural to me! In fact when I came over here I couldn't get over how quickly Christmas seemed to just finish here, and everyone went back to work so quickly. In NZ the Christmas holiday is the start of the long school summer holidays so it just seems to feel more like a special time.

Christmas morning would be filled with the sound of children outside on their new bikes, roller skates, skateboards etc and I still can't get over how quiet Christmas mornings are here. It was a godsend for parents who could get on with preparing Christmas lunch without over excited kids in her hair as we'd all be outside playing.

Our Christmas lunch was usually a ham with roast vegetables followed by all the puddings, so kind of traditional. Other families would have seafood or a bbq bit we were more traditional. We even tried turkey once but none of us were that fussed and preferred the ham.

Imagery was (still is I guess) a funny mix of Northern and Southern. You could get Christmas cards with a cartoon kiwi sunbathing under a pohutukawa tree (a native tree with green foliage and bright red flowers which only come out in December, so we call it our NZ Christmas tree) or a water skiing santa, or the more traditional snowy scenes and Robins on lanterns etc. All seemed completely normal to us.

One thing the northern hemisphere does really well though, is Christmas lights. NZ does have them but it's so light being summer that we tend to use other decorations. Shop windows have festive pictures or messages painted on and there is a lot of tinsel as fairy lights just don't show up as well.

Sorry for the nostalgic outpouring there! I loved Christmas as a child (and as an adult obvs ) and I miss home a lot. We are going back for Christmas 2017 though and can't wait!

[pearlylum]

Christmas did develop as a Northern tradition though, a midwinter festival which brightened up cold days when food was scarce and nothing was growing. A celebration in the coldest hardest times.