New Zealand’s First Christmas
December 9, 2017 11:54 PM   Subscribe

The Christian origins of Christmas meant that before European contact, the celebration had no place in the calendar of Aotearoa. The first celebration of Christmas in New Zealand coincided with Abel Tasman’s voyage to New Zealand in 1642. Unfortunately, things did not get off to a good start.
New Zealand’s First Christmas

One of a series of quick-read articles from NZ History on the history of Christmas in New Zealand: See also:
The history of Christmas dinner in New Zealand (Katie Cooper, Te Papa Blog)
(Interesting reference to and picture of a Victorian "pudding doll.")

Bonus:
The National Library of New Zealand has a Christmas card page on flickr that draws on historical designs.
posted by Start with Dessert (8 comments total) 5 users marked this as a favorite
 
BTW, Yorkshire Goose Pie (the recipe is in the first link) is the original Turducken.
posted by Start with Dessert at 12:07 AM on December 10, 2017 [1 favorite]


"Come on shore and we will kill and eat your gannet!"
posted by Harvey Kilobit at 12:14 AM on December 10, 2017


...the calendar of Aotearoa...

Which is quite interesting, btw.
posted by Segundus at 2:05 AM on December 10, 2017 [1 favorite]


Traditional kiwi Christmas song (Fred Dagg/ John Clarke)
posted by poxandplague at 3:18 AM on December 10, 2017 [2 favorites]


Also a Santa parade often has Santa doing a lolly scramble which usually contain lots of Mackintosh lollies which always remind me of Christmas.
posted by poxandplague at 3:26 AM on December 10, 2017


"...put in the oven with 1 lb of butter,...
Take [...] 6 lbs of butter,...
... melt 2 lbs of butter in the gravy...
... close up the hole in the middle with cold butter..."

That sounds both horrifying and awesome. Either way I'm now hungry. But I also want to live.

I'm conflicted.
posted by Hairy Lobster at 11:50 AM on December 10, 2017 [2 favorites]


A pie made of gannets? Oh hell no. Not the gannet. I don't like them.

They wet their nests.
posted by Naberius at 3:43 PM on December 10, 2017


Wow until this post I had forgotten about how my NZ childhood Christmases always included that favourite pastime :Christmas carols celebrating colonialism
posted by lollusc at 12:57 PM on December 11, 2017 [1 favorite]


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