Busytown by Jolisa Gracewood

Our Xmas day is finishing as yours begins Jolisa. Best wishes to you and your family.

My father has spent the recent evening bravely trying to finish a massive pavlova, with cream (he got about 3/4 of the way around), while the rest of us sensibly focus our attention on the cheesecake. Organic chickens, greek salad, bubbles and wine, fresh bread and BBQed steak. 3/4 of a day of sun, with a hint of cricket in the front yard that was dashed by the late afternoon rain.

Gotta love a Kiwi Xmas.

You forgot Mithras (video from QI, which I watched this afternoon). For the curious, there's a bit more here, but it sounds like its rather more in dispute (but so is everything when academics start looing at it :)

Funny, his only other knowledge of gods comes from Astérix: "By Toutatis!" is a new and regular exclamation around these parts

That's kind of cool. But is he worried about the sky falling on his head?

Merry Chrimble, as the four lads from Liverpool used to say on their fanclub records. I became reacquainted with brandy cream today and I've decided to put it on everything from now on. Even salad.

It is a shame for Santa cultists that the name "Santeria" is already taken, I guess.

But speaking of the jolly red gentleman, the equations at the bottom of this Norad Tracks Santa video describe the increase in mass of an object moving close to the speed of light, which is something of a rebuttal to this piece of cynicism.

On the other hand, who knew that Santa flies low over Iraq delivering precision guided presents to all and sundry??

We managed to get our (newish) Muslim in-law along for his first Kiwi Xmas lnch by pointing out to him a New Zealand Christmas is a completely secular event devoid of any religious meaning, unless the consumption of eleven different living creatures from bivalves to hooved ungulates (no roast pork or bacon or ham though but I can chomp on piggies the other 364 days of the year) is a heroic worship of consumption.

Eating was more or less continuous from 11am to 4pm.

I finished the day at 9.30pm by scoffing verily the last of my sister's beautiful old-fashioned trifle - if I had left it for the morning one of my greedy siblings would surely have snaffled it for breakfast - bliss.

Here ya go:
http://www.sweetideas.co.nz/Resource+Centre/The+Pavlova.html

Helen Leach has discovered the New Zealand origins of Anzac Biscuits as well. We'll let the Aussies have Lamingtons, and they can keep Russell Crowe as well.

Go out and get some sunshine!

What's that? Barbecue loses it's charm somewhat, then the aircraft carrier has to be wheeled into the garage due to high wind and rain.

Cheesecake... trifle... brandy cream! Cricket in the backyard! You lucky buggers. We successfully pulled together a last-minute feast - an insanely huge turkey of which we ate perhaps 10% and will parcel out the rest to friends.

And then the world's best ever pav. No fights about its origin (cheers Dale) but sustained debate about its destination. We manfully refrained from scoffing it all so we could eat the leftovers for breakfast this morning.

the aircraft carrier has to be wheeled into the garage due to high wind and rain.

Craig, do you have one of those mega-huge BBQ grills my friend calls the "Darth Vader"?

But is he worried about the sky falling on his head?

Not so far, but he is developing a taste for wild boar. Or at least a yearning to taste wild boar.

firstly they did have those santa trackers when I was a kid I distinctly remember TV1 (in black and white) showing a 'radar track' of him on his way up from the south pole - because of course he does come to NZ first ...... explaining this to my (growing up in the US) kids was difficult "No! Santa comes from the North Pole!" - given the melting of the polar ice cap that argument's going to get a lot easier ....

Being decidedly non-religious too (but nominally xtian and jewish) we'll celebrate anything we can - we do it all.

What we did settle down to though was 'Xmas' - Xmas is the capitalist holiday of buying stuff - years ago as a joke my brother-in-law tied a $20 to the top of the tree, it's become a family tradition - it used to go out with the tree for someone to find on the street, then we gave it to the kids to give to a homeless person, nowdays we're back in NZ and the homeless are hard to come by - we haven't figured out what to do with it

This year though,. missing that winter xmas, I think we're going to get a tree in June and celebrate solstice

Craig, do you have one of those mega-huge BBQ grills my friend calls the "Darth Vader"?

God no - 1) nowhere to put it, 2) would rather spend the money of effete pleasures like DVDs and books, and, 3) when the hell am I ever going to eat a spit-roasted Clydesdale?

Thankfully, my better half has relations who actually like him so we don't do much cooking between Christmas Eve and Twelfth Night. (And he does indecently fabulous double chocolate berry brownies to seal the deal.) Watching our host trying to move the Battlestar Galactica twenty feet into the garage was hella impressive though. It was the Dawn of Man sequence from 2001 with a cheese platter. :)

Also: Got the Santa talk from a rather solemn six year old. Apparently, Santa Claus doesn't exist, and it doesn't really matter because its so cool when real people give you presents, and cards, and you're allowed to stay up late and eat lots of cakes and lollies you're never allowed to have the rest of the year.

So there.

To steal a line from 30 Rock: In twenty years, we will either all be working for that child, or dead by his hand.

In a fit of honesty I once explained to my then maybe 6yr old about Santa - he came back from the mall a few days later and announced that I was full of crap, he'd seen Santa and he was real.

I left it at that - Santa kept coming, presents arrived - and I was relieved that if my son believed his own eyes over what some adult was telling him I was probably doing something right

In a fit of honesty I once explained to my then maybe 6yr old about Santa - he came back from the mall a few days later and announced that I was full of crap, he'd seen Santa and he was real.

What is it with grinchy adults? Children use fantasy as a way of working out their relationship with the world. Fairy stories, magickal happenings........all very healthy. Kids are able to suspend disbelief - it's a really valuable tool in later life and kids need to learn how to do it ie distinguish between fantasy and reality. I used to work with a woman who, at mat time when reading a story to the kids, would be going " It's just pretend isn't it? " Bloody hell! Sorry for the rave, Paul, but it grates on me, this adult compulsion to 1) do a child's work for them and 2) spoil the magic. Cos that's what it is, and it's a powerful feeling when you're a child.

well I wasn't trying to be grinchy, just honest - I understand what you're saying but I'm decidedly in 2 minds - and the same son when he found out that we'd been lying to him about the tooth fairy got physically quite violent (probably the only time he ever did) - he obviously felt really betrayed by us (his sister had found all the teeth ...)

I think it's really important to be really honest with kids - later on having them believe you becomes much more important - now they're teenagers I feel it's paying off - they do listen to us when we give nuanced talks about alcohol and drugs (not just the 'everything bad' which they'll find out is not true soon enough)

How old were you when you knew that Santa was a fiction? I bet it was older than 6. I'm not a parent, but being a teacher, I understand that parents these days have a more ethically difficult job than our parents may have had. I also understand that sometimes, just sometimes, it's good to have a bit of fantasy in our lives. Most kids figure these things out for themselves, in their own time. I'm just not really sure how honesty with your kids has anything to do with the myths and magic of early childhood and I'm not really sure either how not telling your child that Santa really doesn't fly all around the world in one night is about being dishonest with your child. Especially when they are under the age of seven or so.

I'm not sure which was more fun when me and my sister were kids - believing Santa was real, or maintaining the pretense later on for fun (and to ensure that an additional source of presents didn't dry up).

It's obviously a personal choice. One of my high school teachers never did the Santa thing with her kids, because she didn't see why some imaginary man should get the credit for her and her husbands' gifts. A bit extreme for my tastes, but I can see the reasoning.

oh dear i've ruined the magic of santa for my 5 year old already. I actually do believe in the magic of childhood but the last few weeks i just felt i couldn't keep up the elaborate and confusing pretense we seemed to be concocting for our kids. It was weighing heavily on little F.'s shoulders and when he finally exclaimed OH so you buy all the presents, i could see his eyes light up in relief.. for him it had become all too illogical.
Saint Nicolas already had come knocking on the 5th of December, because I'm Dutch, then we went to see the Smith and Caughey Santa on Queen Street, and the Argentine side of the family insists on the Three Kings bringing presents too on the 6th of Jan. Then there's the tooth fairy and the Argentine tooth mouse Raton Perez, who fight for the right to claim teeth... I've resorted to explaining the need for narrative to give sense to our lives.
I never gave too much thought to my official parenting stance on it, but it has just come down to not being a very good liar ..

Like I said, kids figure it out for themselves. Your one just figured it out early, eh?

I think it's really important to be really honest with kids - later on having them believe you becomes much more important - now they're teenagers I feel it's paying off - they do listen to us when we give nuanced talks about alcohol and drugs (not just the 'everything bad' which they'll find out is not true soon enough)

My ex told my son that Santa wasn't real when he was four. Not impressed! I managed to re-convince him that it was true, and he's since figured it out for himself.

I think 'really honest' is easy to wave around until we start to think about everything that we actually tell our kids. I teach my son to be 'polite', which sometimes involves not being completely honest. I want him to play games using imagination and make believe.

Amongst the crimes against honesty I commit, trying to get my son to believe in magic for as many years as possible, isn't really the worst. He now has a younger sister, and one of the ways I'm going to teach him to be a great older brother is to help me be Santa and teach her to believe for a few years.

If I can get her to do what he did a few years ago - carefully move the milk and cookies away from the fireplace (log burner with a chimney that anorexic Santa couldn't fit down) so that he doesn't trip over it when he arrives - then I know that next morning I'll get to see that wide-eyed look of wonder on a child's face.

Who wouldn't want to be part of making that happen?

Q: What do you get when you cross Nigella's suggested pomegranate pav topping with the NZ-compulsory kiwifruit?

A: Trad holiday colors! Without even trying! Woohoo!

I love pomegranates in any case, but they really do turn out to be particularly good as a counterpoint to pavlova. Plus, gram-for-gram, probably a better (northern hemisphere) bargain than passionfruit. If you can even get passionfruit. Which I can't.

Is also fun watching adults struggle with those linguistic subtleties we had to battle as children. That's right, guys, mince is made of meat but mincemeat is made of raisins[*]. A mince pie is what you eat at 4am after some beer. A christmas mince pie is what you eat at 4pm after some sherry. Hic.

(Why hasn't this come up before now? Because I think they are nasty and only make them when specifically requested.)

[*] Although sometimes also suet, which is technically meat[* *].
[* *] Although sometimes "vegetarian suet" - and where are a vegetable's kidneys, anyway?

we do the 'small' gift from Santa too for the same reason as you Jolisa.
I have faced some very intense questioning from my youngest (8yrs) the last few weeks. She knows the tooth fairy aint real (I got caught - doh!). She keeps asking if Santa is real or not. I don't want to lie so i say 'well, what do you think?' and then she would say things like how mall Santas aren't real but thats because the 'real' Santa is too busy to do stuff like that. So, I think she still believes in him... I have done my best to cultivate it without directly lying to her.
Yesterday at the supermarket she spied some 'spiced buns' similar to hot cross buns and asked 'So... is the Easter Bunny real Mum?'
This time when i said 'Well, what do you think?' she answered back with a direct stare 'I want to know what you think!'
My lame reply was that I had never seem him but that didn't mean much.
I satisfied her for the time being but supermarkets being what they are and Easter being March this year I am sure I will only have a couple of weeks respite before the mountains of Hot Cross Buns and Easter Eggs will prompt a more vigorous questioning.

A couple of centuries ago, mincemeat did indeed have minced meat in it, along with the suet, spices and some dried fruit. Gradually the meat quantities got smaller and the fruit got larger and mincemeat jumped courses and took its present form.

As for vegetable suet, haven't you ever had to cut off the fatty deposits round kidney beans?