Keep things simple this year with three easy options to help this Christmas be just as chic - and relaxing - as it should be.
The ice bucket challenge
Serve your drinks beautifully from a frozen botanical ice bucket. These lovely creations use fresh bright flowers to create the most gorgeous receptacle for your Christmas drinks. The flowers are sourced from small local farms in Auckland, and often have damaged stalks so are unable to be used in more traditional arrangements. Go to instagram.com/frosie.nz to order yours.
Never too much chocolate
You really can’t have too much chocolate at Christmas. But how to choose between all the delicious seasonal releases? This year there’s Whittakers Cocoa Pods ($12.99 from supermarkets), Donovan’s choc lemon meringue clusters, ($4.99 from supermarkets), NZ’s most expensive (and award-winning) chocolate, the Lucid Chocolatier 68% Port ($22 from lucidchocolatier.nz), and of course Tony’s Chocolonely dark choc mint candy cane ($9.99 from cookandnelson.co.nz).
Order Christmas lunch in
The Little French Cafe is offering the easiest possible option for Christmas lunch this year – just order it from them. $65 will buy you a beautiful 1.5kg glazed ham, sourced from the popular Grey Lynn Butchers, and cooked with soy, dijon mustard, mandarin, honey and rosemary. You can also order cheese platters, vol au vents and of course their famous pastries, then chocolate logs and macarons for dessert. Be sure to order at least 48 hours in advance, at littlefrenchpastry.co.nz.