We are a very large family

Michelle Brunton with some of her 17 children. Photo / Jason Dorday

The Bruntons had to build a barn so their super-sized family could sit down together for Christmas dinner. Michelle, 45, and Peter Brunton, 57, delighted Herald on Sunday readers this year with a Mother's Day story about how blessed they felt to have one of the country's biggest families - 17 children.

We caught up with them this week as they prepared the barn - specially built a few years ago on their sprawling property at Makarau, north of Auckland.

There have been times when the barn has accommodated up to 60 people but this year the number was smaller than usual - just over 20 family members. Daughters in Australia and the South Island were unable to make the barn festivities but Michelle's American-based parents are visiting, along with an aunt and uncle.

The Brunton children - Sarah, Joel, Rebekah, Victoria, Rachel, Jethro, Anna-Marie, Leah, Harriet, Deborah, Jacob, Zacharias, Jimmy, Ben, Zebulun, Ethan, and Julia-are aged between 2 and 27 years. They're born roughly one or two years apart. Four of the children have left home and are married.

The family spent this week cleaning the barn, and filling it with decorations and lights. A large pine made a splendid Christmas tree and the "really flash" table setting included good table linen and lots of colourful decorations.

Conscious of not blowing the budget Michelle stocked up on small presents such as colouring pencils and crayons for the children's Christmas stockings. Each child got one present under the tree.

The children, all homeschooled by Michelle, spent Christmas Eve helping pre-preparing Christmas dinner of turkey, ham, new potatoes and baby beans, carrots, courgettes and dessert.

For the Brunton family, the holidays won't be much different from everyday life, ploughing through 20 loaves of bread and 40 litres of milk a week, supplemented with fresh fish.