9brownbear99

Been here now for 15 months and love it so far, this is our second christmas now but just dont know if we can get used to a very hot summers day for christmas day .
Christmas day this year for us was get up in morning after a few to many drinks the night before and watch both our kids unwrap there presents and then spend the morning putting them together and repairing them when they got broke whilst watching only fools and horses and then having a light lunch , after that we went off to the beach were it must have been at least 27 degrees there which was awsome and the water wasn't to cold for a change and then back for a christmas BBQ which also nice , but could not help thinking of a snowy christmas with the full christmas dinner , well the full british thing .
What do you guys think ? Does anybody else miss the british christmas time ?

j19fmm

I'll swap you the heat and the beach for the freezing weather we're having here in the south west. Pavements not thawed for over a week and it's like a flipping skating rink. Can't risk taking the car out, rear windscreen wiper snapped off 2 days ago with the ice and hail.
Still missing it??????

BEVS

Yes. I miss it

Genesis

Yes most miss it and apparently we never get used to it. Done 4 so far and it aint any better!!

bourbon-biscuit

Nope.

Love Kiwi Christmas.

AndyR

Our 1st Kiwi xmas too. LOVED IT! Relaxing morning, simple dinner, caught the bus to Mission Bay and relaxed on the beach before a nice quiet walk round the harbour in Auckland. Best Christmas we've ever had.

Much better than sitting round cooped up in a house with the heating on, stuffing ourselves stupid and then plonking ourselves down in front of the TV all afternoon.

j19fmm

scrubbedexpat094

I'm with Bourbon Biscuit on this one. I much prefer a Kiwi Christmas. We find it far more laid-back, don't have to worry about which rellies to spend it with & it's warm. Actually it was damn hot , thank goodness for aircon.

We had a lovely day spent with friends, it was very relaxing

RobDon

This was our 1st Kiwi Christmas too
Apart from the obvious missing family (well some of them!) we had a lovely day. It was so laid back compared to the usual visiting rellies, eating too much, drinking too much, watching awful tv!
It was a really nice day - just different.

Paula2007

I know my daughter says "its just not the same feeling" - I don't know how it feels as I am still waiting for my visa but I certainly won't miss the last horrific week I have had to endure of thick snow, black ice, not being able to get into my drive at home because we live on a hill and the car kept sliding backwards!!! Water bottle in car frozen for days. Going through 3 cans of De-icer in a week! Oh! and having to call out the RAC yesterday because the car would not start!!!

I have got to face the M6 tomorrow morning first day back at work - shovel and yard brush in the back of the car - bottle of water and phone charged fully - packet of biscuits incase stuck in snow drifts (which are forcast for tomorrow in the North of England).

In a funny way, I don't think I will miss it!!

bourbon-biscuit

We had a shared lunch in the sunshine with two other families and then swam in a lake. The sun came up long before we were awake and was still shining on us after supper. The TV didn't go on all day. Bliss.

thedtb

There is no way we will ever get used to it.

Perhaps it's the home-sickness talking, but this, our first Christmas in NZ, has been an eye opener for us (on numerous levels) and although the above statement probably seems very closed-minded of us, we both genuinely feel that an NZ Christmas is lame by comparison to a UK Christmas.

We pushed the boat out for the sake of our boys (2yrs and 4yrs) and I'm sure that they had a lovely time, but for us, Christmas was disappointing to say the very least.

Next year, we'll absolutely be back in the UK for Christmas.

bourbon-biscuit

With the greatest of respect, what did you expect?

Christmas is a family festival and therefore it's hard for expats, particularly in the early years, to replicate the feelings and enjoyment of Christmas before emigrating.

This year was our best Kiwi Christmas yet, partly because we were invited to share it with freinds and partly because we're starting to really appreciate Kiwi Christmas. If you head back to the UK for Christmas eveyr year you'll never get into it here and neither will your kids, which is a ricky road to go down I think.

Sorry it wasn't all the great for you.

thedtb

We fully expected Christmas to be different and we expected to miss home, but we didn't expect for one second to miss the UK Christmas (and everything that goes with it) anything like as much as we actually did and still are doing.

It has also opened our eyes as to just how much our family and friends mean to us. Which is perhaps the most surprising, because we weren't particularly "close" to them when we were back in the UK... but being away from them at Christmas and hearing of multiple family events taking place without us (a few surprise proposals and a massive family party, the latter of which we only found out about just as we were leaving the UK in September)... combine this with problems with my UK business which kicked off a little before Christmas, the fact we're still waiting for the wife to start working full time (position starts at the end of January), which in turn is causing more than a few financial difficulties and all in all we're actually thinking that the move to NZ may have been a rather huge mistake on our part

Though as I've mentioned in a previous conversation thread, we're in somewhat of a state of limbo at the moment what with effectively camping in the house, not knowing many people in the area etc etc.... I am hoping it is just the home-sickness talking and that a more normal life here will be attained once our container arrives and that a greater integration with the local community will evolve in due course... but for the time being the loose plan is to throw our all in to really living and enjoying the next year as best as we possibly can, but then we'll be off back to the UK for in time for Christmas and that is were we will stop permanently.

I do genuinely hope that we'll get to the point of going back for Christmas 2010 and be really torn between both countries... but sadly, I can't currently imagine that ever happening... New Zealand is indeed a wonderful and beautiful country, but for us, currently at least, the UK is far better.

jennifer45

Had a wonderful 'family' Xmas. the first for many years!.
All the people who are important to me- my sons, their partners, wives and my wonderful grandchildren. Building up tracks, setting up games, acting like a big kid, laughter, crying, eating, drinking,getting together family and friends- so different to the sterile foreign escapes undertaken, when your loved ones are at the other side of the world!
I LOVE XMAS IN NZ COS I"M WITH MY FAMILY AT LAST!

Jennie x