Thoughts for Christmas

Here in New Zealand, the Pohutukawa is our Christmas tree.  Maori Lore has it that if it blooms early then we will have a good, long, hot summer. Well, suddenly the weather has changed in Wellington and it looks as if the Maori were right.

Then I thought of other things to wite about today. The song that has been my favourite Christmas song, for some years – Drinking White Wine in the Sun by Tim Minchin.  Do you know this song?

And then I thought about the Christmas story, of the boy child being born in a manger, and of the three kings who visited bringing gifts. That then brought me to Norma Faber and her poem The Queens Came Late –

The Queens came late, but the Queens were there 
With gifts in their hands and crowns in their hair. 
They’d come, these three, like the Kings, from far, 
Following, yes, that guiding star….

And rather than frankincense and myrrh
And gold for the babe, they brought for her 
Who held him, a homespun gown of blue,
And chicken soup–with noodles, too-
And a lingering, lasting, cradlesong.

For the rest of the poem, click the link.

And then I thought of the Twelve Days of Christmas, sung each year and sometimes, I at least, have got fed up hearing it played on the radio. But there are a couple of funny versions – John Denver and the Muppets and Frank Kelly’s Christmas Countdown. For more click here.

What about a New Zealand version?

On the first day of Christmas
My true love gave to me
A pukeko in a ponga tree 
On the second day of Christmas
My true love gave to me
Two kumera
And a pukeko in a ponga tree 
On the third day of Christmas

And on and on until –

On the twelfth day of Christmas
My true love gave to me
Twelve piupius swinging
Eleven haka lessons
Ten juicy fish heads
Nine sacks of pipis

Eight plants of puha
Seven eels a swimming
Six pois a twirling
Five – big – fat – pigs!
Four huhu grubs
Three flax kits
Two kumara
And a pukeko in a ponga tree!

Definitions

Pukeko – NZ Native bird
Ponga tree – Fern tree that grows here
Kumara – yellow sweet potato
Piuspius – a skirt made of strips of flax
Haka – war chant
Pipis – small shellfish
Puha – type of sow thistle
Pois – Maori word for ball
Huhu – small edible grub found in New Zealand.

And now on Chistmas Eve, it just leaves me to wish you all a very happy Christmas, Hannukah, Eid or however you celebrate this time. May 2022 be a better year for all.
And thank you for following Chris and me on our journey, our adventures..

Even the trains are bedecked for Christmas

“Let us have music for Christmas…
Sound the trumpet of joy and rebirth;
Let each of us try, with a song in our hearts,
To bring peace to men on earth.”
Mildred L Jarrell,

JB – December 24. 2021