For the past five years Jordan Rondel has divided her life between here and Los Angeles where she runs her business The Caker with her sister Anouk, creating decadent pre-mixed cake kits and baking for celebrities. Though Rondel regularly returns to her hometown of Auckland for projects like judging TV1’s The Great Kiwi Bake Off, she tells Sharon Stephenson how she's learned to fully embrace the American style of Christmas.
I grew up in Auckland with a French father and British mother. Because both their families lived overseas our Christmases were small, usually just the four of us.
My parents weren’t big Christmassy people. So although we had a lovely time we didn’t do things like put up a tree or have Christmas family traditions. That’s possibly why I’ve gone the other way and as I’ve gotten older I really embrace Christmas. The more traditions the better, as far as I’m concerned.
It’s also why I love living in LA because the Americans are big into Christmas. Not so much in my neighbourhood because I live Downtown but in places like Hollywood all the shops and houses are often elaborately decorated. I love walking past a house and seeing the yard full of decorations.
This will be the third Christmas I’ve spent with my partner Ryan’s family in Detroit. His family make a huge effort for the holiday and even if their grandchildren aren’t there they still go all out with lots of decorations.
We didn’t have Christmas stockings growing up but Ryan’s family always give me one brimming with gifts. It’s a tradition I’ve fallen in love with.
We had a white Christmas in Detroit last year and I’m really hoping we’ll get another one this year. It feels like the Christmases you see in the movies.
We usually go to Detroit on the 20th so we’ve got a few days to enjoy with Ryan’s family before Christmas. They usually go carol singing and this year Ryan has asked if I want to join in and I really, really do! I think that’s what I love about Christmas so much now – that feeling of being an adult but also being allowed to feel like a kid again. It’s like manifesting all those childhood experiences I didn't have as a child into my adult life, which is magical.
On Christmas day we we wake up early and open presents and then kind of mooch around in our PJs watching movies until lunch.
Christmas lunch is so different from what I had growing up in New Zealand. We tend to have roast chicken, roast vegetables, mashed potatoes and gravy, really heavy, rich, wintery food. Sometimes I do miss a Kiwi summer Christmas where we’d serve something light like grilled snapper and a lovely fruit salad.
One of Ryan’s family’s Christmas lunch traditions is crab legs. They steam them and then you crunch them open and dip them into a buttery sauce. They taste amazing.
We all help out with cooking lunch. Doing the dessert usually falls to me for obvious reasons. This year I’m going to introduce the family to pavlova. It’s one of my own recipes. You can buy Kiwifruit over here to top it with but I’m thinking I might do a winter fruit kind of topping with slices of citrus such as grapefruit, mandarin and oranges.
I’m a bubbles fan so if there’s champagne going around, I’m very happy. Last year I introduced Ryan’s family to mulled wine which they hadn’t tried before. I’ve yet to be converted to eggnog, though; maybe it’s just that I haven’t tried a good one yet.
Christmas is expensive no matter where you are in the world. At this time of the year time is limited and we all want convenience so we might go to whatever grocery story is nearest, which could be an expensive one. But if you can, go out of your way try to find some of the cheaper stores where the food might be a bit cheaper, such as ethnic food stores. In LA there are lots of them but I have to go out of my way to find them.
I wasn’t previously a huge fan of Christmas songs but last week I found an awful but amazing radio station that plays Christmas songs 24/7! I’ll be driving somewhere with my sister and we’ll sing along. It feels quite jovial.
I’m sure it’s the same for lots of people but Christmas isn’t Christmas without Love Actually. And it’s not very Christmassy but the movie I watch whenever I want to feel comforted is Lost in Translation. That’s my happy place and I always find myself watching it on Christmas Day.
The Great Kiwi Bake Off Christmas Special is on tonight (December 17), 7pm on TVNZ 1 and TVNZ+.
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