In our experience
These three women celebrate somewhat differently to most of us
‘THEY CAN’ T GET THEIR HEADS ROUND MINCE PIES’
Lisa Leport-Symonds, 46, spends Christmas on the beach in blazing sunshine. She emigrated to New Zealand from the UK 15 years ago with her husband Phill. They live in Whanganui with Elise, 12, and Lola, 10. Adopted daughter Nadine, 23, has moved back to the UK to study.
An Antipodean Christmas is all about being outdoors – and it occurs in the middle of our summer holidays. The kids finish school in the first week of December and don’t go back until February, and because we’re a country of small businesses, many bosses shut down for a month.
Although we occasionally come back to the UK to visit relatives, New Zealand is home for us, so we celebrate Christmas Kiwi-style. We maintain some British traditions, like the Christmas tree, and we hang stockings and exchange gifts, but there is a big disconnect because it’s around 25 degrees and everyone’s in shorts and swimwear, so it does feel very different.
Christmas light switch-ons are not a big thing because it doesn’t get dark until really late, and while Christmas movies and the Monarch’s speech are a fixture on TVs around the UK, here we never switch the telly on. We might enjoy croissants and Buck’s Fizz in the pool first thing, but we’d never eat a massive turkey roast because in the afternoon we usually head to the beach – and the last thing you want is a belly full of roast potatoes! You wouldn’t be able to get many of the traditional veg like sprouts anyway, because here you can only get vegetables that are in season, so at Christmas it’s all about salads. I keep trying to get our kids to look at a mince pie, but they just can’t get their heads around the idea.
The festive season here is about socialising and, just like back home, there’s a lot of travelling to see people dear to us. Although we can’t spend the time with our family who still live in England, we have created a close circle here, so we spend Christmas Day and Boxing Day with the children’s godparents or with our closest friends. We meet up, the hosts put some meat or seafood on the barbecue and everybody takes a side dish. And a lot of alcohol is consumed too!
I’m a hot-weather person, so I don’t miss the British Christmas. In 2018, when we last went back, it was so cold the kids didn’t know what had hit them. But I do worry they’re missing out on that special family time, so I can’t wait for Christmas 2023, as we’re planning to invite my parents, Phill’s brother’s family and my uncle and his girlfriend to come over and spend a Kiwi Christmas with us.
‘IT FEELS AS IF WE HAVE
