The first Christmas dinner in New Zealand was in 1642. Abel Tasman and his crew enjoyed fresh pork and an extra ration of wine, hunkering down during a storm in Cook Strait. It would be over a 100 years before the next celebration, this time with
James Cook on the Endeavour anchored off North Cape.
Joseph Banks, the ship’s botanist, wrote: ’25. Christmas day: Our goose* pye was eat with great approbation and in the Evening all hands were as Drunk as our forefathers usd to be upon the like occasion.’
*since there were no geese in NZ yet, they cooked gannets instead.
For many years Pakeha New Zealanders’ Christmas dinner menu followed the traditions of the northern hemisphere, even though these were not suited for a Christmas that fell in summer. Pity those poor women in the kitchen with a roaring coal range, preparing a roast with all the trimmings, and boiling a Christmas pudding.
Perhaps for this reason, picnics became very popular, such as this one in 1877.
“The whole population of Mokerita, with a few exceptions, enjoyed a little social intercourse at a most excellent picnic at Mr Dodd’s, Anderson Park, on Christmas Day. Everything was considered highly successful, and so far as an abundance of eatables, plenty of racing, leaping, and gaming form a criterion, with each vying with his or her neighbour to make everything pleasant and enjoyable, there certainly was success.”
Māori converts also celebrated Christmas with feasts but cooked traditional food.
In the unlikely event you would like to cook a goose (or a gannet) we have a recipe for this in our cookbook collection but maybe Christmas pudding is more to your taste. Here’s a Kiwi recipe from 365 Puddings; One for Every Day of the Year. (How is it people used to always have a dessert with dinner and didn’t get fat?) There’s no mention of the threepences that were typically stirred into the pudding to delight children (and probably dentists).
These very solid puddings were often accused of causing indigestion. The British Medical Journal, The Lancet, was moved to write in their defence. It pointed out that pudding came at the end of a substantial dinner so any discomfort was probably from over-eating. It described the Christmas pudding as a “remarkably complete scientific food”. So if you are a fan you can now eat as much as you like, without guilt.
Merry Christmas and thank you to everyone who has supported the museum this year, as volunteers, sponsors and visitors.
The museum will be festively decorated and we’d love you to come and see how Christmas was celebrated in the past.
The museum is open 10.30-2.30 every Saturday, Sunday and Public Holidays. Over the summer from 27 December to 6 February it is open every day. Admission is free but donation/koha is much appreciated as this is our main source of funds.
