It’s pleasantly sunny outside and you can see many pohutukawa flours, those trees grow especially along the beaches. The decoration is often limited to an artificial Christmas tree.
I would estimate that many New Zealanders celebrate Christmas in the cultural sense, but not all go to church to celebrate Christmas as a Christian holiday. I’d say probably 60% of families celebrate Christmas in a big way.
Because my family is Chinese, we don’t tend to eat a lot of Western dishes. However, on Christmas Day, we make an effort to eat “traditional” Christmas foods New Zealand inherited from the British, such as roast chicken/ lamb with roast vegetables and cake. Spending the 25th with my parents and siblings, we also open our presents during the morning of that day. In general during summer, but especially for Christmas, it is popular to eat Pavlova.
For sure shopping on Boxing day is really popular. Last but not least I love listing to All I want for Christmas is you by Mariah Carey and the television often plays movies like Forrest Gump and Love Actually during the Christmas time.
