NzAtAGlance

    I don’t know if it’s just me or what, but I still get just as excited now as I did when I was a kid when Christmas comes around. Christmas in New Zealand in the eighties for me was awesome. I think having two brothers and two sisters made it more exciting. For years we used to search the house for the presents that mum and dad got us. After three or four years we figured out that they were always in the closet in their room. Tucked in behind a heap of shoes and clothes, and crap.  But then of course when you found them it sucked because there was no longer a surprise.

Click here for a Christmas In New Zealand video.

    I’m not to sure of what the real tradition is, but in New Zealand (well our house anyway) when Santa came to our house, he never put any presents under our tree, he just filled pillow cases that were left on the ends of our beds. Christmas in New Zealand I think was a little different in that sense. Here in the States, we put gifts under the tree before Santa even gets here, ( although I have introduced the pillow case thing as well). That part about Santa not coming unless you’re asleep, is a myth, because I’m sure I saw Santa a couple of times.

     I also remember, we used to have an orange record that we used to get out a couple of weeks before Christmas which we used to crank up and piss the neighbours off (Gene Autry at his best).

     Christmas in New Zealand, you must remember is is the Summer, (some people here in the States have asked me if we have Christmas in July or August, when it’s winter…. true). So there is a lot of BBQsand partying. I remember Christmas Eve was always a big night in Matamata. Most of the businesses in town would close down for three or four weeks and Christmas Eve was usually the last day. Most people would go straight to a work party somewhere after work, then everyone would go down to the local pub to catch up with alot of mates that they hadn’t seen for awhile, and have come home for Christmas.

     Christmas day was always exciting as a kid, and we would always be outside playing with the toys that we got, and checking out what the neighbours got (the neighbours always seem to get something better). In actual fact sometimes we would have to wait until lunch time or even later because Dad would work shift work, and would start at 4am and not get home until 12pm. So sometimes we would see all the other kids playing with their stuff and we were still waiting. But when you got older, Christmas was usually a recovery day. Boxing day (26th Dec) was usually the day we would pack up and go to a beach somewhere, and get prepped for the new year, or, as a kid it was a day when you pissed off, because you’ve already broken some of the toys you got from Santa.

    That’s just a few memories of Christmas in New Zealand for me, maybe a little than some other parts of the world.