Christmas Preparations...in NZ

Jen here –

As Liz and I have been trying to prepare for Christmas, we’ve been noticing a few…differences between New Zealand and the U.S....

1.) Christmas Trees – This difference is HUGE. At home, having a Christmas tree is pretty much a necessity of Christmas. Here…it’s like... “Oh, that’s nice. A Christmas tree. We had one once.” WHAT?! A friend stepped in and saved us from having a treeless Christmas - He is friends with a “Coconut” (a man originally from the Cook Islands), who promised to cut down a Christmas tree from his backyard and bring it over to our new place. Liz and I were pumped and excited to have our own real Christmas tree.

Taira (the Coconut man), pulled up to our drive and I ran out excitedly to see the tree. They got out of the car and pulled out a ….pine….bush. Yes, I think a bush is probably the best way to describe it. Taira, who has been living in New Zealand since he was 21, put the Christmas bush up in the house in the typical New Zealand tree-putting up way: He walked into the flat, assessed the height of the ceiling (only by looking), went out, hacked off the top of the bush, brought the bush into the house, jammed the bottom into the bucket we had bought (New Zealand does not have tree stands, only buckets), and jammed the top of the tree into the ceiling, spraying out the top of the branches against the ceiling. Liz and I stood there the whole time, shocked. There was no careful, “Oh, 3 inches more to the right! Shoot! No, left! No, I mean MY LEFT! AHHH!!!!!” There was no nice symmetry to the tree, I mean, bush. HUGE branches come out everywhere. I think the tree is as tall as it is wide.

But. As much as we give it a hard time, it is a “tree”. And it’s ours. And we’re so, very grateful for Taira in cutting it down from his backyard for us.

2.) Lights – There’s no place in Paihia to buy Christmas lights and so I went to Keri Keri, (a “town”?) about 25 minutes drive away, and I bought 2 boxes of 50 lights for about $9 apiece. I got home and Liz and I started putting the lights on when we realized….In New Zealand, each strand of lights has only one plug “thing” on it. At the other end, unlike how IT IS BACK HOME, there is no, plug hole (if that’s the right word), for another strand of lights to plug into. And seeing as we only have one outlet in the entire living room that is located on the opposite side of the room of the tree and only one extension cord, we were only able to put one strand of lights on. As Liz said, “New Zealand needs to get its crap together.” We could have just moved the tree closer to the outlet, but the floor of our flat slants at about a 10° angle (no joke), so the tree that was fitted by Taira for one corner of the flat would have been way to tall for the floor closer to the outlet.

*Note – I just got back from talking to a Kiwi about the Christmas light situation. I told him of how the light strands work in the US and he said, “Ohhhh….right. That seems like a good idea…..” But that was it! His response was kind of like an afterthought, like, an “Oh – that’s a good idea…maybe someone will invent those here in about 20 years…Right…back to the beach….”

**Note: This Kiwi just got a part in “The Hobbit.” He’s about 5’3”, has long, wild, brown hair, and giant hairy feet. HOW AWESOME IS THAT?! **

3.) Christmas cookies – New Zealand really doesn’t do Christmas cookies. Nope. Well, they call cookies “biscuits” here, but no Christmas biscuits either. I was asking Kelly at work, “Right – so like, no sugar cookies? No butterballs (or snowballs as Liz calls them)? No Christmas biscuit exchange?” Nope. NOOOOO holiday cookie spirit here.

4.) Marshmallows – As part of our Epic Christmas Cookie Plan, I was going to make the Rice Krispie holiday wreaths. You know, the green wreaths with cinnamon hots as the berries? Well, I went to the store and then realized, “Ohhh…. Shoot. That’s right. New Zealand has crap for marshmallows.” Their marshmallows here are weird for 3 reasons:

a. They’re white AND pink. And white and pink marshmallows are always mixed together. You can’t buy one bag of white marshmallows, say, and one bag of pink. Oh no. They come together.

b. All of the marshmallows, both pink and white, are covered in this like, hard, protective powdered sugar shield. If some country decided for some strange reason to nuclear bomb New Zealand, the marshmallows would be JUST fine. No worries.

c. The pink ones taste….weird. Liz and I can’t put a flavor on it. They’re … just…like…kind of disgusting. You eat one and you’re chewing and everything is normal, and then you’re like, “What the…..?”

So. I had already bought the food coloring (after having to drive about 25 minutes away to get some food coloring) and the “Rice Pops” (aka Rice Krispies), and so I wasn’t going to just NOT make them. I bought 2 TINY bags of the marshmallows for $4 APIECE. How’d they turn out? Well. Umm.. they’re alright. But New Zealand doesn’t have red hots and so they kind of just look like huge green blobs. Huge green blobs that taste like pink marshmallows.

But as much as Liz and I pretend complain about the tree continuously falling over for LACK OF A PROPER TREE STAND, how baking shortening for cookies just does not exist here in New Zealand, and that New Zealand as a whole doesn’t really….well, doesn’t reeeeally get into the Christmas spirit...

Liz and I have done our best to bring a Michigan Christmas to our flat and new friends. My paper chain (thanks Cha Cha Mary!), taped together with electrical tape found in a old hostel room, is strung around the living room; the tree is decorated with tiny white lights, paper snowflakes, candy canes, and two ornaments (thanks Mrs. Dengate!); the kitchen table is covered in different Christmas cookies, and there’s a large Christmas dinner in the works at our flat for all of our closest friends.

We just need some snow and we’d be all set.

Thinking of you all!