Herald on Sunday editorial: To all readers, a happy Christmas

We wish our readers good reading, fine weather, safe driving and a happy Christmas.

Christmas feels like it has had a late start this year. Perhaps it was politics that caused the delay.

Normally Parliament winds down for the year with weary short tempers on all sides and thoughts of Christmas are a blessed relief. This time John Key's shock resignation has invigorated the past two weeks as National MPs chose a new Prime Minister, several ministers jumped, or were pushed, overboard and today Bill English unveils a new Cabinet. No wonder Santa Claus has struggled for attention.

But this is the beginning of Christmas week and the spirit is upon us. Newspapers will not appear next Sunday, Christmas Day, so this is our chance to offer the compliments of the season and some thoughts on the year that will have passed when next we appear.

Sunday has been a gratifying day of publication during 2016. We have been ideally timed to celebrate the successes of our Olympians at Rio, the All Blacks' record-breaking run of success, and just last weekend, Joseph Parker's achievement of a world heavyweight boxing title.

We take pride in fighting for you, our readers, and those who do not have a loud voice in New Zealand life. We have brought you the light and bright sides of life too. And you have rewarded us with a steady rise in readership.

There are now 316,000 readers of the Herald on Sunday, 8000 more than three months previously and 19,000 more than a year ago. We have 28,000 more readers than our main rival and 106,000 more in Auckland. Newspapers are struggling these days against digital devices but clearly many people still like to sit down with a paper on a Sunday morning or read it at the cafe with a coffee.

We hope today's issue is especially enjoyable, especially the feature explaining the origin of some of the most familiar Christmas traditions, and the interview with Farah Palmer, the former Black Fern who is going to bring a long overdue woman's voice to the highest table of New Zealand Rugby.

It has been a tumultuous year in world politics, witnessing popular rejections of the wisdom of the establishment in the United Kingdom and the United States. Britain must now negotiate an exit from the European Union and the world must come to terms with a US President who has does not intend to operate by previous rules of diplomacy and trade.

That is for the new year. For now, we wish you good reading, fine weather, safe driving and a happy Christmas.