It has come to my attention that most New Zealanders don’t do anything for Halloween. This really disappointed me since it’s one of my favourite holidays. I can name all the costumes I’ve ever had for Halloween and I have very fond memories of trick-or-treating, haunted houses, haunted corn mazes, and some Halloween parties when I got older. It looks like I won’t be doing anything for Halloween this year.
A family friend sent me a Halloween card and it arrived today. I thought that was really sweet. I decided that maybe next year (since it’s too short notice and I don’t know anyone around here yet) that maybe I’ll throw my own Halloween costume party. I mean… who doesn’t like costume parties?
All this thought on holidays got me thinking about what the next holiday was. Thanksgiving. Now if you’re not my grandmother who asked me for 4 consecutive years “how New Zealanders celebrate Thanksgiving” then you’ll understand why I might have gotten melancholy. I decided to take action, though. I told Josh and his mother that I’d like to make my own Thanksgiving dinner and invite the other members of our family so that we can celebrate Thanksgiving. They all thought it was a great idea and now Caity’s Big Thanksgiving Day has been set in motion. I’m really excited.
Just because you’re in another country doesn’t mean you can’t celebrate your favourite holidays! I’m glad I finally realized this.
Christmas in the summer is going to be very strange to me, though.
What is your favourite holiday?
I can’t stand the fact that Halloween isn’t celebrated here. As much as I appreciate not having to deal with children knocking on my door all night, the whole idea behind the holiday is awesome! I think it’s becoming more of a thing, but only in close-knit neighbourhoods where it’s been arranged for households to get candy for the kids.
I’m also annoyed we don’t have Thanksgiving here, but that’s mostly because it means we don’t get things like pecan and pumpkin pie and cranberry sauce!
Christmas in summer is AWESOME! Growing up, Christmas was always spent at the beach. These days, we usually have a hangi (which is something any decent New Zealander will get you to try!) at my parents’ place.
Yeah, pumpkin pie is my favourite thing ever. I’m glad that Halloween is becoming a little more well-known here.
I think Christmas in the summer will be fun but it’ll just feel weird, haha. I’ve heard about a hangi and I plan to try one too. :)
I’d LOVE to have Christmas during the Summer. One of my goals is to celebrate Christmas and New Years in Australia, within these next few years – with my best friend. :)
Try the “Maze n maize n maze” or something. Er, I just checked it out quick, the mazes them selfs are closed, but they might be running Corn Evil or something.
http://www.maze.co.nz/
Check it out. :P
I LOVE xmas, it’s not Xmas without trifle, pav, and the sun shining. Swimming at the beach, river, or just in ya rich mates pool. Haha. I don’t celebrate Xmas for anything else aside from family to be honest. xD
Ooh that’s awesome! Thanks for that! :)
I don’t know what my favourite is, really! I tend to like Easter because hot cross buns are one of my favourite foods ever, and of course they’re only sold around Easter… and also Easter almost always coincides with school holidays/mid-semester break, and even on the rare occasions it doesn’t it means a super-long weekend. So definitely a holiday to look forward to for those reasons ;) But in terms of the holiday itself and its festivities… I don’t know really. New Year’s Eve can be pretty fun, I guess!
I don’t like halloween. It’s getting more and more popular here, and some kids do dress up and go around knocking on doors. I hate it, ’cause I never have anything for them. Here in Norway we instead dress up and knock on doors at christmas, but then sing christmas-carols instead. I love christmas.. it’s the only real holiday for me :)
Ooh I’ve gone caroling. Caroling is so much fun! Christmas has always been a favourite of mine, too. :)
I’m very happy that we don’t really celebrate Halloween here (Finland) officially at least, there are some theme parties and shops sell Halloween crap but at least no kids are knocking the doors (we have Easter tradition with includes it). I mean only reason why it’s coming here more is that you can sell stupid crap in shops. I’m sure it’s fun and all, but no need to try to bring it here, thank you.
I like Christmas, New Year and Juhannus (mid summer party). I’d say Juhannus is the least commercialized party here.
What is a hangi? I’ve never heard of it. ~ I love all holidays! I don’t mind it when the little kids come knocking at our door on Halloween! I think they’re adorable! ~ I can still remember taking you, Corinne and all the kiddies I babysat for, trick-or-treating! I LOVED IT! ~ I’m so glad that you are having a traditional Thanksgiving dinner with Josh’s family! What a GREAT idea! Wish we could be there to celebrate with you! ~ Christmas without snow will definitely be different! Maybe you’ll have a bar-be-cue! ~ Love and miss you! ~ Love, Mom
A hangi is the traditional Maori way of cooking food. There are a few ways it can be done, but the way my dad and uncle do it is by digging a shallow hole, large enough for the amount of food that will be cooked and the river rocks (the kind that hold a lot of heat without exploding) needed. A ten gallon drum is put over the hole and filled with as much wood as possible. That wood is burnt down until the hole and the rocks are burning hot. The food, which is put inside hangi sacks (the ones Mum uses are made from hemp) is placed in a steel basket covered in damp hangi cloth (so the food doesn’t burn) into the hole. It’s then covered with dirt and left there for around 3-5 hours… depending on the amount of food.
It sounds kind of gross because of the dirt, but the sacks and cloths don’t let any dirt in and flavour of the food is AMAZING!
It’s a lot like a roast dinner, just cooked in the ground! :)
That sounds like a hobo dinner, but in the ground. Hobo dinners can be cooked in a wet cloth, but most often now a days it is done in aluminum foil. You just put all of the food (meat, potatoes, carrots, what have you) in the foil or cloth and put it in the hot coals of a fire and cook it all together. It’s delicious and was always my favorite part of camping.
halloween is definitely my favorite holiday. I love dressing up! and I love Thanksgiving because I love to eat! We get to eat a lot on Christmas and Easter, so those are OK too.
What special holidays do they celebrate over there? They’ve got to have a few of their own, right?
That is quite the norm in Australia too. No Halloween or Thanksgiving. I can imagine that if I moved to another country, I’d have to actually get used to all the celebrations that we don’t have here.
I am glad that you are still celebrating Thanksgiving. Something that you grew up with and find important should not be ignored just because you’re in another country. :)
Christmas in the summer would be EXCELLENT if you ask me. I wouldn’t really mind not having Halloween or a Thanksgiving dinner, though, I don’t think. Hmm.
I don’t really have a favorite holiday.I don’t celebrate many.
I think Caity’s Big Thanksgiving Day sounds like a great idea! I’m so excited that you decided to do it! :)
My favorite holiday is Christmas. Despite my hatred of snow and cold, the holiday just wouldn’t be the same with warm weather and green grass. I’m looking forward to hearing about your summer-time Christmas.
My favorite holiday is generally Christmas although this year I am really looking forward to Thanksgiving because it’ll be my family and my in-laws all together.
Corey’s parents were super disappointed with the lack of Halloween in France too, despite the fact that they have vacation DURING the holiday! So they started up a Halloween tradition around their small town. They always have a costume party, a huge batch of chili, candies, and Corey’s Mom is a HUGE decorating fiend. They got it to the point where most of the town knows when “Hit his ‘alloween.” They even sell pumpkins now if you look in the right places.
Don’t worry! You can train em on what’s awesome. :)
Caity — I smiled about the holidays because my eldest who lives in London went through many of the same experiences. While she understood the reasons, it disappointed GREATLY that Thanksgiving wasn’t celebrated. She did exactly what you plan to do. She goes to her in-laws (they have a bigger kitchen) and makes everyone a Thanksgiving meal. She been there for almost eight years and it’s now become a family tradition.
I hope the same will happen for you:~)
No Halloween is a total bummer, but at least you can have a Thanksgiving dinner! I actually didn’t know NZ didn’t celebrate Thanksgiving, I kind of thought they would, but in another month, like Canada. Sheesh, I feel kind of silly, but that’s just not something they go over in school. Which is why it’s so much fun to read your blog and learn more about NZ than just hobbit holes.
Oh, I couldn’t imagine a Christmas in the summer, and I live in Texas!! D: That would just feel … off to me. :(
When do you celebrate Halloween? We celebrate Thanksgiving in November. o.o Our Halloween is at the end of this month. :D
My favorite holiday is Christmas, followed by Thanksgiving and Easter.
We’ve had a few warm Christmases here in NC in the past, but nothing summer-like that I can recall. So while a warm Christmas wouldn’t be too weird to me, I do prefer Christmas to be at least on the chilly side just so it actually feels like the kind of Christmases we sing about in Christmas carols. :-)
No Halloween? Crazy! Do kids even go trick-or-treating? Halloween is definitely one of my favourite holidays. I can’t decide which is my favourite as I love them all! I used to think for months about what I was going to be for Halloween. I love all the decorations and stuff. I am more of a corny decoration person instead of scary…but that’s okay right?! Anyway, I think it is awesome that you are celebrating your Thanksgiving even if no one else in the country is :D
I’m so proud of you for still going to celebrate the American traditions in New Zealand. I’m also proud that nothing is getting you down at all; and I can’t wait for the photo’s after thanksgiving. Yeah I wanted to throw a halloween party this year but our house is in no shape to be throwing anything at the moment. Everything’s still in boxes and my dad’s still sleeping in the living room hopefully that will change. My favorite holiday is Halloween.
Oooh should be exciting to do your own version of Thanksgiving in another country! :) What are you planning on making?
I love Christmas… My family combines Filipino and American traditions when Christmas comes around so I love going to Mass with my entire family (We fill up an entire pew), celebrating Noche Buena (kind of like a feast — a lot like Thanksgiving Dinner in my family), singing Christmas songs together, exchanging presents and just hanging out.
That’s nice! I’ve never received any Halloween card before. We don’t celebrate Halloween much here too but there are lots of parties and activities but no trick or treating here.
This is probably one of my saddest things about moving here. I think I still might dress up and do something for halloween! :)
My favorite holiday is Christmas, but this year I’ll be spending Christmas and every other holiday in a foreign country – I like celebrating holidays, but I don’t really care. I don’t even know when Thanksgiving is and I probably won’t even notice Halloween until it’s over.
The Blogger
I'm Caity! I am a New Yorker who married a Kiwi and recently moved across the world to New Zealand. I'm a math teacher who enjoys the outdoors, photography, video games, music, and general geekery.
Life is a great big adventure and I am beginning a whole new journey. It isn't always easy but it is always worth it. ♥
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