Some people lament the loss of the religious meaning of Christmas, but a religious academic says early European settlers were more interested in food than church on Christmas Day.
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Massey University history professor Peter Lineham has written a chapter about Christmas trends in a new book looking at the sacred and the secular in New Zealand.
He noted that among the early Christian settlers, only Anglicans and Catholics observed Christmas as a religious festival.
"On Christmas Day, the churches were shut," he said.
"So the Christmas that people had, the traditional Christmas in New Zealand, was a Christmas of feasting - not services, not Santa Claus, not gift-giving - just eating and drinking."
Prof Lineham said the exchange of presents only really took off in the early 20th century, with the opening of department stores.
He said it was noticeable how few religious-themed shop windows there now were at Christmas.
