It’s that time of year when the northern hemisphere is getting into the Christmas mood. The retail sector goes into overdrive and every where you go there are iconic images of snow, father christmas and the like.
Here in New Zealand people are just making that last push effort to get to Christmas as this marks the start of the long summer break. Sure there are signs of Christmas but I’ve never got used to the mixture of “traditional” Christmas and kiwi style.
Or I should say lack of Christmas style. The pohutukawa is the most iconic of kiwi Christmas. This is the New Zealand version of a Christmas Tree. An evergreen tree that blossoms with bright red flowers. You can read all about it here. Obviously Christmas is a Christian Festival but as like other parts of the world it is the non religious celebrations and symbols that dominate.
In the last couple of years I’ve tried to get into the kiwi Christmas groove but have to admit defeat. It just doesn’t feel like Christmas. I went to the carol concert at Wellington Cathedral last year and whilst a lovely service there were kiwi Christmas carols that I just couldn’t relate to.
The fact that you need to shop, pack and post in mid November to send stuff back to Europe is also at odds with my preferred last minute adrenelin rushing blitz around Oxford Market and sitting in front of the fire wrapping sipping a nice warming drink. I also feel quite ridiculous that the parcels I sent by economy mail have already arrived with people (great service for the price but they are suposed to take weeks not days to get there!).
Christmas cards are my main stressor too. I’ve always loved sending and receiving Christmas cards but since coming to New Zealand my heart hasn’t been in it. The only explanation is that I’ve not found a Christmas card that I like enough to want to send to people. I’ve been so fed up this year that I’ve vowed to research the market properly for next year and get my own designs into the market place. Something that can reflect that spirit of summer and holiday greetings.
The Telegraph have posted some excellent Christmas Card designs for geeks. These have spurred me out of my Christmas malaise so I thought I’d share them with you.
Without doubt the second best Christmas-themed programming greetings card ever made. Buy from Cafepress
Christmas cheer, to the power of three. Buy from Cafepress
Probably the best Christmas-themed HTML colour programming greetings card ever made. Buy from Zazzle
This, apparently, is hilarious – it’s all about peptides and the amino acid alphabet. Full explanation here. Buy from Zazzle
I had to laugh out loud, that top card is so apt. Thanks for the link, I’ve already down loaded several of those cards and will probably include some of them in a photo-montage family news letter that I will be sending to friends and family that I know are not reading my daily blog.
I can see that if we make it to NZ we will have to radically rethink our Christmas traditions though a church service will be the focal point with hopefully a family gathering. I don’t even like turkey so a kebab barbeque and pavlova on the beach sound wonderful.
Ah I am right there with you on this! Our third Christmas now and I must admit I am finding it hard. We are in fact getting our tree tonight (despite much protesting by hubby) but I just need to try and ‘wind up’ to it all so why wait. I miss the days of sitting in front of the fire, cold, wet and windy outside but just happily wrapping presents with a wine and some lovely Christmassy songs playing, its now just one huge rush through October to buy and November to wrap and send on time, and yes, how annoying is it when they arrive so flippin’ early? I mean we shouldn’t complain as its awesome that they arrive at all, but when the Econonmy service says 2-4 weeks and they arrive in 5 days (yes that happened with mine!) then it makes us look crazy.
We are still sending out kiwi card, pictures of beaches, Santa laid on the beach, Pohutukawa trees etc. Next year though I will be on the look out for something new. Michael will love these cards you have here, he likes geeky things like that!!
Ho, ho, ho and all that jazz xxx