Celebrities talk about their dream Christmas gifts.
From a sleep-in to a hangover cure, New Zealand TV celebrities reveal their perfect Christmas gifts.
MATTY MCLEAN, Breakfast, TVNZ 1 My perfect Christmas gift would be... Tickets to see Lizzo perform at the FOMO Festival in Auckland because Lizzo is an absolute goddess and, honestly, I feel like it will be a spiritual experience seeing her live. If you haven’t watched her perform Juice at the VMAs earlier this year, do me a favour and go watch it now. You will not be disappointed. Please don’t get me... Chocolates because my mum still fills a stocking for me, at the age of 33, and most of that is made up with Favourites and Roses and Maltesers, and I end up finishing the holiday period looking like Violet Beauregard. I don’t need any more chocolate.
JACK TAME, Q+A, TVNZ 1 My perfect Christmas gift would be... A new experience. I want to make memories rather than clutter. I know that makes me impossible to buy for, so a digital subscription or a few tasty treats would be excellent. Please don’t get me... Stuff. I don’t need any more possessions. I don’t need new
gadgets or things.
MARK RICHARDSON, The AM Show, Three My perfect Christmas gift would be... Some sort of miracle hangover cure – a tonic or potion or something. For the past 15 years I’ve worked on Boxing Day, which usually involves getting
up at 5am to catch a plane to Christchurch or Wellington to work on the Boxing Day cricket and I take the ‘eat, drink and be merry’ part of Christmas Day very seriously. Please don’t give me... A bottle of Scotch. See above for the reason. If you give me a bottle of Scotch for Christmas it will only follow the bubbles that accompany breakfast, the sav blanc that accompanies pre-lunch nibbles, the pinot that accompanies lunch, the slightly heavier red that accompanies the afternoon and the full-bodied blend that goes with the reverse seared fillet mignon. Oh, and I always have a good ‘sticky’ with Christmas pud which always seems to have its own brandy accompaniment.
JESSE MULLIGAN, The Project, Three My perfect Christmas gift would be... A watch. I don’t ask for much, just the ability to tell the time by looking at my wrist rather than fossicking around in my pocket for a smart phone. Unfortunately, I have unnaturally large wrists and my last attempt to buy a watch was foiled when the sales assistant suggested I “come back when the swelling goes down”. Please don’t get me... Any glassware. It’s a great gift for a wine lover but I have been a wine lover for some years now and in that time have been gifted approximately 6000 different vessels to drink out of. What are people worried about – that I’m going to drink straight out of the cask? I have done that, but not since I moved out of Hamilton. DAI HENWOOD, 7 Days, Three My perfect Christmas gift would be... A surfing holiday in Vietnam. It is somewhere I would love to travel to and could combine my love of travel, surf and amazing food all at once. Feel free to get me this even if it is not Christmas. Please don’t get me... A meringue, a pottle of aioli or anything that has eggs in it. I am highly allergic to eggs and don’t want to spend Christmas at the emergency department with an epi-pen sticking out of my leg.
JEREMY CORBETT, The Project, Three My perfect Christmas gift would be... Well, I’m a big believer in something created rather than bought. Made by the giver with love in their hearts. I also like technology so the perfect gift would be a hand-made iPhone. Thanks. Please don’t get me... Anything you’re too invested in. I really appreciate gifts, but when you’re standing there watching me open it, hoping my reaction is the most excited you have ever seen, I will disappoint.
KATE KING, Sky Sport News, Prime My perfect Christmas gift would be... Having all my family in one spot. After living on the other side of the globe for the past five years, you soon realise that a snowy Christmas is a little less cosy without loved ones
around. Mine are spread across a few different countries and cities, so to be all together would be quite an achievement. Please don’t get me... A Liverpool shirt. Unless I run out of rags between now and Christmas.
GORAN PALADIN, Sky Sport News, Prime My perfect Christmas gift would be... Clothes. I have a bad habit of spending all my money on landscaping or renovations around the house (it’s a hangover from previous work influences... Our First Home, HomeMade) and neglect basic things like what I’m wearing. I’m currently on a tight rotate of about four T-shirts and three pairs of shorts only. Please don’t get me... Shoes. I only wear jandals, all year round... even through those dangerously wet Auckland winters. And I’m well served on the jandal front, with two pairs of Havaianas.
MIKE McROBERTS, NewsHub Live At Six presenter, Three My perfect Christmas gift would be... Tickets to a Six60 concert. Nothing says summer in New Zealand than catching our best band perform live. Please don’t get me... Chocolates. I have such shocking will power when it comes to sweet treats... OK, go on, get me some then.
BERNADINE OLIVER-KERBY, Sky Sport News, Prime My perfect Christmas gift would be... A sleep-in. I know Santa’s very well connected in the toy department, but if he could work some magic with the clocks and actually slow time down so the 4am alarm doesn’t roll around all too quickly – that would be great. Please don’t get me... Anything. Christmas is about being together and you can’t buy that. Pardon the cliche but it’s true that your presence is the present.
NICOLE WHIPPY, Shortland Street, TVNZ 2 My perfect Christmas gift would be... A holiday with my family. Preferably Fiji but I will settle for anywhere hot with a beach and a book. Northland? Experiences are the way to go when it comes to giving me presents. You can keep your perfume and flowers. Please don’t get me... Christmas crackers filled with plastic. If I have to tell you why then you need to wake up. My kids always want plastic c... and I
have to remind myself constantly why we need to do better for the world and them.
ANTONIA PREBBLE, Westside, Three My perfect Christmas gift would be... Some long-sleeved togs because I’m ready to take my ‘hide-from-the-sun’ philosophy to the next level. Please don’t get me... Books. While I love them, and normally this would be my answer to question one, due to now having a tiny human in my care, I don’t think I’ll get round to reading anything over one-page long for about five years.
AMANDA GILLIES, The AM Show, Three My perfect Christmas gift would be... Having all my family and loved ones together, under the same roof, celebrating with lots of good wine and food. Sadly, this year, we are in different cities and countries on Christmas Day. Please don’t get me... An alarm that goes off at 3.15am. That’s been my life for the past three years. And I love nothing more than snuggling in, under the covers, for far too long over the Christmas break... no alarm in sight.
HADYN JONES, Fair Go, TVNZ 1 My perfect Christmas gift would be... One of those mixer things on all those infomercials. I’ve been trying to perfect my smoothies and have been struggling. So a decent blender... oh and world peace. Please don’t get me... A book. I have real trouble putting a book down once I pick it up. I have been labelled a book bore on Christmas Day because once I get my nose inside the pages, I tend to stay there.
CASSIDY MORRIS, The Dish, Bravo My perfect Christmas gift would be... Great company and lots of food – oh, and you can also throw in a good book. I just finished I Am Pilgrim by Terry Hayes. This is my all-time-favourite book. So anything thriller is definitely my thing. Please don’t get me... Anything I have to buy batteries for because nobody has time for that.
KANOA LLOYD, The Project, Three My perfect Christmas gift would be... A wood-fired pizza oven, sitting on a terrace in my garden, surrounded by some well-established planting that provides just the right amount of summer fragrance and shade during our late al fresco dinners. I currently have a lawn and an overgrown hedge. Please don’t get me... Anything. Honestly gift giving and receiving makes me so anxious. Let’s just skip to the fun part – Christmas lunch.