A summer Christmas is cold comfort
The weather forecasters started weeks ago: will Christmas Day be sunny? Will you be able to have your traditional barbecue, drinks on the deck, swim at the beach?
After all, it’s summer! Santa in jandals, stockings hanging from tent poles, chocolate coins melting in the sun: this is what a proper Kiwi Christmas is all about, isn’t it?
Well, actually, no. Sometimes we’re lucky but often Christmas Day is cloudy and dull, possibly even a bit cool, and not in the good way.
Not that we tell people overseas that. When they – and it’s mainly the Brits I’m thinking of – marvel at the deeply foreign, to them, concept of a summer Christmas, we go the whole hog, don’t we?
We boast about salmon and crayfish, pavlova and icecream, family cricket on the back lawn, picnics at the beach.
We revel in our difference – even if, shhh, we too end up sitting inside eating roast turkey and glazed ham, and steamed pudding with brandy butter.
That’s cold-weather food. Because Christmas is, truly, a cold weather festival. Everyone owes it to themselves to have at least one cold Christmas, to experience the traditions as they’re meant to be.
Coloured lights sparkling in the early dark so even little kids can enjoy them; mulled wine steaming; hot, filling food bolstering you against winter weather; people in scarves swirling around outdoor ice rinks; market stalls thronging with cheerful 5pm office escapees; possibly, even, real snow as the ultimate decoration.
On the other side of the world, Christmas isn’t diluted by end-of-school year events, summer holidays, wine festivals, outdoor rock concerts. No, it’s concentrated Christmas, and all the more special for that. So treat yourself: just once, go north, and try the cold version.
We revel in our difference – even if we too end up sitting inside eating roast turkey and glazed ham.