JO SEAGAR:

Whether you’re dusting off long-held family traditions, or making new ones to share in the future, Christmas should be a time of togetherness and goodwill.

traditions

Ifeel I can speak with some authority on the subject of Christmas, having experienced 62 of them! I have clear recollections of Christmases past, dating back to the age of about three. The funny thing is, I don’t remember much about the presents; it is more to do with memories of the people around the dining table, the family traditions and the fun and laughter.

Christmas for us was always about gathering the family together – there were cousins and elderly aunts and grandparents, plus we always had room for a few extras, such as travellers from overseas and varsity students who were working for my father on our Hawke’s Bay farm.

There were lots of family traditions – such as attending church in the morning, dressed in our Sunday best. We all piled into the Humber Super Snipe and Mum’s Ford Anglia – probably about 10 passengers in each car (obviously pre-seatbelt days) – and drove off in convoy. At the church service in Havelock North we sang carols and there was usually some sort of nativity play performed by the Sunday School children. I remember fondly the time we even had a real donkey and it took too fond a liking to baby Jesus’ hay in the manger, then pooped all over the vicar’s feet!

We always woke very early on Christmas morning, sometimes about 5am. There were pillowcases on the ends of our beds with lots of treats… gold foil-wrapped coins and new shorty pyjamas, tins of Lakeland coloured pencils, delicious smelly bath salts or bubble bath, new socks and tubes of tennis balls. When everyone was gathered in the sitting room, we could unwrap the presents under the tree. If you received new clothing – even socks or knickers – you had to immediately put them on over the top of your jarmies and do a fashion show. So wonderfully amusing to us kids.

We quickly grasped the idea that there were two categories of gifts – those from people we knew, and others from Father Christmas. I was an astute little child who soon realised it was a tad strange that Father Christmas had the same wrapping paper as our family… But I played along for the younger siblings and also to cover my bases in case there really was a Father Christmas. We left out carrots for the reindeer and a bottle of beer and a mince pie for Father Christmas himself. In the morning we were excited to see a few telltale crumbs remaining and an empty beer bottle.

Breakfast was always Champagne and raspberries with runny cream and copious dustings of icing sugar. My siblings and cousins still carry on this tradition and we often phone each other to pass on festive greetings while enjoying our annual treat. I recall one year Mum in a fluster because she had muddled up the cornflour and icing sugar canisters and we had to rinse all the raspberries off and start the dishing out process again.

After our church service and carol singing, the day moved on in musical merriment and the old 45 records were brought out and dusted off for another year of Snoopy’s Christmas and Frank Sinatra’s Dreaming of a White Christmas. The table was always set the night before (a useful tip I’m still keen to share) and the best china, silverware and crystal glasses were used. On the table we had little dishes of muscatel raisins – not sure why they featured but it didn’t feel like Christmas without them – a pile of nuts and plates of Roses chocolates, with candles and a floral arrangement of holly and pohutukawa flowers.

Other people will have their own special take on Christmas, but universally it’s about sharing the day with those you care about and making people feel welcome and special, a time of goodwill to all mankind. This year you might be enjoying favourite family traditions, or starting new ones; perhaps you are gathering family around you, FaceTiming far-flung loved ones, or sharing the day with friends, but however you celebrate, may you approach this Christmas with a loving heart and create memories to treasure.

“In the morning we were excited to see telltale crumbs and an empty beer bottle.”