As I type this, I am watching the Queen's Message on tv. I am full and happy after Christmas Day luncheon at the West Plaza Hotel.
It was a lovely meal, but it was what I would call a kiwi summer buffet. There was no roast beef/gravy/roast potatoes. There were salads, salmon, potato gratin, turkey, ham. The desserts were cold, nothing hot. I couldnt work out whether the hard cold slices of something was supposed to be Chistmas cake or plum pudding. The mince pies were obviously out of a packet. There were miniscule pavs (put your thumb and forefinger together and that was the size of all the dessert selections).
I guess that the old English tradition of a full hot Christmas day meal is practically out, which I suppose is sensible because it is our summer over here, halfway across the world from England. It is sad in a way for people of my generation, but young people, of course, don't even know, nowadays, how slavishly NZ used to follow anything English.
below: West Plaza Hotel Wellington, Christmas luncheon, 25 December 2017
