page_title: Christmas in New Zealand
section_title: Food
hierarchical_section_title: Christmas in New Zealand / Food
caption_attribution_description: Photo of pavlova dessert with topping of kiwifruit, strawberries and passionfruit.
context_page_description: Christmas traditions in New Zealand are similar to those in Australia in that they incorporate a mix of British and North American traditions, such as Christmas symbols featuring winter iconography. However, the timing of Christmas occurring during the Southern Hemisphere's summer season has resulted in the development of some local traditions as a result of the warmer weather. New Zealand Christmas dishes include summer fruits and vegetables, and pavlova. The New Zealand Christmas tree, the pōhutukawa, is displayed as well as the traditional Northern European tree.
  Christmas, observed on 25 December, became widely celebrated in the late 19th century among Pākehā settlers. Today, Christmas Day and Boxing Day are both statutory holidays in New Zealand. While Boxing Day is a standard statutory holiday, Christmas Day is one of the few days of the year where all but the most essential businesses and services must close.
context_section_description: Families traditionally gather for a Christmas Day lunch. Traditional foods include roast beef, turkey, lamb, salads and roast vegetables. More recently, as appropriate to the often hotter weather of the day, it has become popular to serve local seasonal produce such as cold meats and seafood (such as eel). Increasingly common, instead of a formal dinner indoors, New Zealanders relax outdoors on Christmas Day and enjoy a barbecue lunch on the beach—popularised since the 2000s. 
  Similarly, dessert also includes a mix of traditional winter Christmas food (such as plum pudding, fruit mince pies, and Christmas cake) alongside local traditions, such as pavlova topped with summer fruits or kiwifruit.
caption: Pavlova is a popular Christmas dessert in New  Zealand
exif: {"Image Make": "FUJIFILM", "Image Model": "FinePix A500", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "72", "Image YResolution": "72", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "FinePixViewer Ver.4.2", "Image DateTime": "2008:05:16 20:50:13", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image Copyright": "", "Image ExifOffset": "276", "Image PrintIM": "[80, 114, 105, 110, 116, 73, 77, 0, 48, 50, 53, 48, 0, 0, 0, 2, 0, 2, 1, 0, 0, 0, 1, 1, 0, 0, 0, 0]", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "1298", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "12196", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/9", "EXIF FNumber": "18/5", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Program Normal", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "200", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0221", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2007:11:25 01:46:44", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2007:11:25 01:46:44", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "161/50", "EXIF ApertureValue": "37/10", "EXIF BrightnessValue": "22/25", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "17/5", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF LightSource": "Unknown", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "79/10", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "2157", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "1617", "Interoperability InteroperabilityIndex": "R98", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "1174", "EXIF FocalPlaneXResolution": "4442", "EXIF FocalPlaneYResolution": "4442", "EXIF FocalPlaneResolutionUnit": "3", "EXIF SensingMethod": "One-chip color area", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF SceneType": "Directly Photographed", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF Sharpness": "Normal", "EXIF SubjectDistanceRange": "0"}