The eternal contest of NZ v Sea. Endlessly watchable.

Allegedly once included in Christmas puddings. Now an offence under the Food Safety Act.

Alistair Bone’s take on the things that make up our Christmas experience.

6 The beach

The tastiest member of the Cute and Completely Trusting Baby Animal food group. Yes, the future is certainly going to be unkind in its judgment.

7 Roast lamb

But only the scrubbed, clean kind. Is there any other food you’d buy with dirt on it?

4 New spuds

1 PohutukawaThe New Zealand Christmas tree. A harbour of birds, children and possums. Fittingly, for our agricultural nation, surrounded by blood red spines at its base, as if someone has butchered a pig under its gentle benediction.

Hard to make without collapsing it into a sci-fi goo. Do it once successfully. Boast about it ever after. Buy from then onwards.

Has a woman ever cooked on a barbecue? A rare sight. It’s a medium-level skill, so let’s make 2012 the year women reclaim the cooking of meat outdoors. So we can all say ‘well done’, you women.

3 Barbeque

2 Pavlova

5 Sixpence

14 SocksOnly in New Zealand would generations of children use these as Christmas stockings. Says something about our greed, really.

16 Pillow case

18

Not for use on a black sand beach or motorcycles. You’ll know why as soon as your feet touch the ground on either.

You know that brother-in-law? The corporate tax lawyer? That guy? One word: Bodyline.

Even if you don’t have a dog, you will see one of these over Christmas. Shaking a halo of saltwater off itself at the beach. You always remember it like it’s happening in slow motion. If you’re in luck, it may get close enough for you to catch that mouldy carpet scent of a wet canine. A smell, along with pipe tobacco and the Chanel numbers, which instantly takes you to the ghost of Christmas past.

12 Wet dog 13 Backyard cricket

11 Jandals

Not so boring a pressie if you are a bachelor. Necessary things that have to be got. Maybe light on the thoughtfulness (ref: soap, a calendar). Like getting a set of tyres for your wife, really. Appreciated most by the practical.

18 Mountains ofwrapping paperIt’s Christmas for puss as well.

19 Broken toys by lunchtimeSomewhere, a Chinese manufacturer is choosing a Ferrari that matches his tie.

It’s hard to be serious about this.

17 Trifle

15 Secret SantaThe word is senior management and major shareholders everywhere are participating this year. Stuffing envelopes chock full of money to be opened by grateful employees who may then well be reduced to wide-eyed wonder and speechless joy at the generosity of their wise and thoughtful chiefs. And there will be unicorns at the Christmas party. Lots and lots of unicorns.

An IED full of fun.

9 Christmas crackerIrrelevant cultural hold-over attended by the ignorant and old. Or, the celebration of the birth of God incarnate who brought us a message of universal and unconditional love and set us free from fear forever. Choose the one that makes you happier.

The mountain. The bridge. The train. The struggle in the black water. Grandma’s single tear at grace.

10 Midnight Mass8 Tangiwai

24 Leftover ham

28 Christmas cards with snow on them

26 The Queen’s speech

25 Snoopy’s Christmas

23 Kitsch Kiwiana Christmas decorationsAt one point, sometime before the fat Elvis, all that tacky junk your grandparents have on their shelves was cool, too. Consider the passage of time. The endless flow of the seasons. Then your inevitable descent into becoming kitsch Kiwiana yourself.

Like that scene in The Deerhunter where they are playing Russian roulette with one bullet in the chamber. Did it go in the fridge in time? Did the neighbour’s kids rub their grubby hands over it? Do you feel lucky, punk? Take a bite. You’ll find out if that cylinder was empty or full in about two hours.

The British continue to mock us with pictures of their frozen water. Asking them how that EU thingy is working out can prove an efficient de-smuggifier.

Rumoured this year to be the announcement of an unprecedented military build-up ahead of a recolonisation of Africa to keep it out of the hands of ‘‘the Oriental horde’’. Alternatively, may be something about the Olympics, family of man, UK revitalisation. Snore. Hope for plan A.

The immortal tale of a cartoon dog hallucinating a life-and-death struggle with a World War I flying ace has become a Christmas classic. It’s unknown what Jesus thinks of this, but a safe guess he’d probably like it better than the whiny Feed the World anthem that has become his alternate birthday tune.

Cinderella. Cinders.

29 Christmas treedecorated

30 Christmas tree dead on the kerb

Faded and almost always a size too small, with a tendency to ride down. Guaranteed to get a complaint from children. Ostensibly because they are embarrassed, but really because Dad Shorts are a sub-conscious trigger of a primal childhood fear. Reminding kids that dad was not always just a cash machine and provider of food. That he was one time an independent being, possibly in possession of a surfboard – back when these shorts fit/were fashionable – and just perhaps maybe could be that again if they become too much of a burden.

27 Dad’s beach shorts

Like one of those encyclopaedias from the 1950s: stained and full of out-of-date knowledge and inappropriate attitudes. Smells of dust. Not made any more. A taonga. So forgive him for being a grumpy old git who always drinks too much when in the family clutches.

21 Uncle Sid20 Piles of dirty dishesIf movies are to be believed, there’s something about washing dishes with a friend that prompts you to talk about deep and meaningful things. Exploit this if there is something you want to know. Top tip for guys learned the hard way: Don’t arrange the dirty dishes at your flat in an artfully creative pile and take a picture of it and send it to your girlfriend. This goes nowhere good.

22 Christmas cakeLike the stone soup fable – awful, unless you add and add and add things on top, like cream and kiwifruit and strawberries – then throw the cake away and eat the topping.

Continued on B7

I feel very special! Here’s one back. It’s got my favourite phone virus from 2012 attached. Open it up and have a look! So funny!

48 Mass text messages

49 Mince piesThe best part of Christmas, and to some of us, life.

Like they’re downstairs in the cells or something and giving evidence on the CCTV. Better than nothing, but can’t wait for 3D.

50 Skyping the rellies47 Flogging your gifts on TradeMeReally? The sort of thing you only do if you are a burglar or accountant. Naff. Man up and give it to the Sallies.

Top tip learned the hard way: Photocopiers have a little chip in them on which everything, ever, photocopied on them is stored. Including that and those. Avoid unless you want to see something vaguely familiar appear on the internet in about two years.

43 The Christmas work do

Still weirdly erotic after all these years.

42 StrawberriesNot without checking on current warnings from your DHB’s Medical Officer of Health you don’t.

41 Kaimoana

46 Boxing Day hangoverOf head and tummy. They both hate you. Appease with upcoming New Year’s resolution.

44 Trash novelsThe usual suspects: Grisham, King, Steele. Mock on from your deck in Whangamata - they’re spending Christmas at their own island served multicoloured drinks brought to them on the back of a Galapagos turtle.

How did classic cars get involved in these? Bring back frightened zoo animals.

45 Santa parade

Live for a day like your cat.

40 Afternoon nap

‘‘Scientists’’ now ‘‘believe’’ giving rambunctious kids lots more sugar and a caffeinated drink or two will calm them right down. Try that and let us know how it goes. In fact, call us first so we can be there to watch.

35 Creepy santas in shopping malls

And too-fat, too-young, high-school dropout elves that

chew gum with their slack jaws while sloping through

the highest paid job they will ever have. Serves your

kids right for being born to parents who think

they can crystallise the infinite and

temporary magic of childhood in a

shopping mall.

36 Overexcited kids

What would Christmas afternoon be without the tinny clack of an M16 on full auto as it booms from a sub-woofer in the lounge? Hanging out for Deathbringer 16 – Drone Pilot. Rumour says the Pakistan Border expansion pack is sponsored by the CIA and allows for a totally real-time interaction with the lives of illiterate bronze-age peasants.

39 New video games

Where you meet great people who were determined not to buy anything for Christmas but gave into their hearts in the end or were too busy doing actual jobs to shop. Embrace it like a cold shower or a mosh pit: good human fun and hunter-gathering that harms fewer animals than a Hobbit movie.

When the dead-eyed bargain hunters feed. Avoid like a zombie apocalypse.

37 Christmas Eve shopping frenzy

38 Boxing Day shopping frenzy

Buy stock in whoever makes this. Yup. Climate change is a-comin’. Yessir.

31 Sunscreen 32 Indian dairiesFor Christmas Day emergencies - thank you God(s) for the Hindus. Please come again.

The great poet Tom Petty said it best in this beautiful haiku:Don’tHave to liveLikeA refugee.

34 Camping

We mean for Christmas, not the World Cup.

33 Tacky decorated houses