In New Zealand Christmas Day itself is observed much the same way as it is in the United States and Europe. (61) There are some concessions to the reversed seasons, however, for Christmas down under comes in midsummer. On the New Zealand Christmas dinner menu, for instance, plum pudding is almost invariably flanked by fruit salad, ice cream, and fresh summer fruits such as strawberries and raspberries.
In New Zealand Christmas is preeminently the season for reaffirming goodwill and friendship for the gathering and reunion of friends and families. For several weeks before December 25th, New Zealanders crowd the shops and department stores looking for presents for their families and close friends, and greeting cards for less intimate acquaintances. (62) The big stores each have a professional Santa Claus, white-bearded, red-mantled, black-booted, perspiringly presiding over a "Magic Cave" or a "Toyland", and solemnly noting the Christmas Eve requirements of hundreds of excited children.
Christmas Eve is much the same in New Zealand as it is in other countries. A last feverish flurry of shopping is made possible by a special late night in the stores, and then families and friends may foregather for a Christmas Eve party at home. There are few homes in which children do not carefully hang up their stockings for Santa Claus to fill with toys and candies. There are midnight services at the churches, for those who bear in mind the original significance of Christmas, and special broadcasts of Christmas programs on the radio network. (63) Christmas carol-singing has also been inherited from the Old World, and in some towns on Christmas Eve. "Carols by Candlelight" are held in suitable settings outdoors.
Christmas carols often usher in Christmas Day in New Zealand. (64) Perhaps the most popular and most regular carollers are members of the Salvation Army, whose melodious rendering of the well-loved old Christmas hymns wakens many New Zealanders to the Feast of the Nativity.
(65) New Zealanders spend their Christmas Day with the friendly greetings, the gifts-and especially the toys for the children-and the sumptuous family dinner which is the center-piece of this day over the world. Christmas dinner in New Zealand usually includes poultry of some sort--turkey, chicken, duck or goose-meat joints such as lamb, pork, beef, or mutton, new season’s peas and potatoes, and other vegetables, mince pies, plum pudding, and the rest of traditional fare inherited from New Zealand’s British ancestry. But in most homes dishes more suitable to summer weather are added to or substituted on the menu. There are salads, cold poultry, fresh fruit and cold sweet dishes.