HOME & AWAY
Welcome to the special Christmas edition of H&G, an unashamedly no-stone-left-unturned exploration of all things festive. If you can take or leave Christmas, and this issue has somehow made it into your hands, it’s probably a good idea to pass it to a neighbour or relative who lives to throw a party and visit us again in January.
For those who start shopping for Christmas at the January sales and love to dream up new ways to impress the guests, settle in and enjoy the romp through our pages as we drop in on Christmas gatherings around the globe and serve up decorating and table-setting ideas for all budgets. There’s a terrific gift guide, of course, plus extra suggestions from our expert columnists. The excellent Buyer’s Guide to appliances may also prompt a gift idea or two.
Where will you spend Christmas this year? With family scattered all over the country and my eldest daughter spending her first Christmas away from home, our own plans are still to be locked in. But wherever we end up, the ingredients are more or less the same: a good menu plan with drinks to match, a tree to place gifts under, an assortment of table linen – some new pieces, some treasured heirlooms. If we’re away from home, a box of random decorations and strings of lights comes too, ready to be strung up by excited helpers.
No matter where you’ll be, this is a time to enjoy the people around you, to invite those without company to your table, create memories and be thankful.
Christmas away from home is a reality for many people and we thought it would be interesting to see how it looks for those celebrating away from home. We’ve visited Australian families living in Singapore, LA and Dubai, and dropped in on a family reunion in Mozambique and the restored Sri Lankan villa of a couple of New Zealand expats. At each stop, the hosts have blended elements from ‘home’ with the colours and flavours of their locale to set the scene for a celebration.
Back on Australian shores, we’ve chronicled the Christmas plan of one of this country’s pre-eminent entertainers, Chyka Keebaugh, who has gone to town with an emerald theme this year, sprinkling festive joy from the front door to her much-used dining table.
Perhaps the last word this month should go to Georgia Macmillan, currently living with her young family in Dubai. “This is life,” she says. “And whether it’s for two years or 10, you need to make your home a home.”
Wishing you all a happy, peaceful Christmas, wherever you are, from all of us here at H&G.