Celebs' plans for a Kiwi Christmas

Our family are taking off to the beaches of Nelson/Tasman for Christmas and New Year. We'll be sleeping lots, tramping, fishing and having fun before all the excitement of 2014 kicks off in earnest. We wish all Diary readers and their families a Merry Christmas and a happy holiday.
Labour leader David Cunliffe

We are planning a quiet Christmas day with family in the Waikato, but we are planning to make up for it by having a big New Year's at a secret beach location with family and friends with a lamb-onthe-spit, crayfish and champagne.
Paula Bennett, MP

This Christmas I am going to stuff my face with cherries, Roses chocolates and sangria and sit on the beach. For New Year's, I will blast a 90s dance mix CD in my rented Toyota and drive to the Coromandel. I'll try to find a shady spot for my tent on my friend's lawn. Then I'm going to Piha and looking forward to being slathered in sunscreen and mosquito repellent-and maybe body glitter if I play the 90s CD too loud.
Rose McIver, Once Upon A Time, Masters of Sex

Somehow I've been forced into a tradition where I have to jump into the water at midnight on New Year's Eve. A first-swim-of-the-year-type thing. The weird part is that nobody joins me any more. They just stand around suggesting the nearest body of water I can leap into, then sit back and watch me get fully, stupidly and pointlessly wet. I try to resist each year but they use mind tricks to force me into it. "Never let the tradition slip away", "you can't stop now after so many years" and "get in the water, dick".
Jeremy Corbett, 7 Days

This year, for the first time in history, my mum will not be spending Christmas Day slaving away in the kitchen. She's finally agreed to have what she's always joked about but has never allowed herself to have ... a sausage on a stick next to the river! And I'll be there with her. Can't think of anything better. Thank you, Mum.
Shavaughn Ruakere, Shortland Street

After eating and napping our way through Christmas Day, my family will be going to a wedding at the Waiouru Army Camp. I was going to be the MC but they ended up asking someone else, which is great because at work whenever I can't think of something to say, "awkward silence", I just play a song. Not so easy at a wedding ...
Robert Rakete, The Breeze

I am having a road trip up the East Coast with lots of surfing and camping.
Cameron Jones, Shortland Street

Christmas will be at home in Lyttelton with the twins, Florence and Bridie (28months) and wee Evelyn (18months). It's effectively the first Christmas for them. At the end of January, we're off to Mapua (a very kind friend has a wonderful house there), followed by five days for me on the road with Mayor Tim Shadbolt, doing our comedy show. Then Simon Barnett and I will start preparing at More FM for our move into the Wellington, Waikato and Auckland markets.
Gary McCormick, More FM

I'm having a quiet Christmas this year spending it with family and friends, and with some Pacific Island food. There isn't really a whole lot I have planned for the summer hols. I'm hoping for a lot of R&R, and a bit of spontaneity here and there.
Frankie Adams, Shortland Street

I find it quite hard to do holidays, so while Christmas and New Year's will probably take care of themselves, by early January I suspect I'll be presenting a half-hour show to my daughters from the couch at 7pm each night. In TV we often talk about "maintaining our audience" but that's pretty easy when one of them hasn't learnt to walk yet and the other one's in a high chair. I won't have much luck getting Victoria to watch though; she's waist-deep in wedding plans. We've split the organisation fairly evenly: she's in charge of planning every aspect of the day and I'm in charge of not ruining everything. I still think this might be more than I can manage.
Jesse Mulligan, Seven Sharp

I am spending my Christmas ensuring that Santa knows where to find my children and cleaning up the mess that his reindeer will leave behind.
Lynette Forday, Shortland Street

We're having a family Christmas in Christchurch at Mum and Dad's. There will be four generations sitting around the table, which is a rarity. My sister will do an incredible honey-baked ham. I have bought all the littlies gifts from my recent trip to the States, so hopefully they enjoy the best that Disney has to offer. And after Christmas, I'm going camping with Ben Barrington at Mt Maunganui. He'll bring his banjo, I'll wear my cowboy hat. If you see our camper rockin', do come a-knockin.'
Will Hall, Auckland Daze

I love Christmas. A time for family, friends and relying on the fact that all food eaten in the festive spirit is calorie-free. Merry Christmas New Zealand. The family and I are spending the holidays in Hawaii - in the country that described me as an unidentified guest recently. Just the way I like it on holiday!
Prime Minister John Key

We're going to see my mum for Christmas Day and then we're going AWOL. I'm taking the kids fishing, camping and eeling up north. It's out of cellphone range, so don't call me, I'll call you.
Duncan Garner, RadioLive

I will be spending New Year at my Napier house and then going to the Bay of Islands on the boat. It's the first summer that I haven't gone to LA for years.
Paul Henry, TV3

I'll be eating my body weight in ham and watching Father Ted, only venturing outside once in awhile for more food and swims.
Rose Matafeo, Jono and Ben at Ten

I'm so excited about this Christmas. For the first time in five years I'm not working, and we are all heading off to my hometown of Whakatane to have a proper family Christmas. My boys (aged 3 and 6) are at an age where they are beside themselves with excitement and I can't wait for them to have a Christmas like the ones I remember. What's more, I got my shopping done early. I'm working New Year's but that never quite lives up to expectations, and it increases the odds I will wake up with a clear head and raring to go for 2014.
Ingrid Hipkiss, TV3

Summer means I'll be a widow. If anyone sees my fiancé [Tony Holden, from ice block company Nice Blocks] please wish him a Merry Christmas and tell him I'll email him about our summer wedding plans. Summer also means seven glorious days in the Marlborough Sounds with family, friends ... and finally Mr Nice Blocks.
Nicole Whippy, Nothing Trivial

I will be relaxing in Central Otago with family, a stack of books and some Central Otago wine.
Amy Usherwood, Shortland Street

On Christmas morning it's a rush out to the deck to see if the reindeer have bitten any of the carrots we left them. On Christmas afternoon I'm usually going back and forth to the bathroom after my wife tells me I still have carrot in my teeth.
Paul Ego, 7 Days

My plan is to catch up on sleep in anticipation of tackling the opposite end of the day next year. Fairly unlikely, however, with two pre-schoolers high on the expectation of a large man negotiating the chimney.
Sacha McNeil, Firstline

We've got builders, tilers, painters, et al in our house. A good friend took pity on us
and invited us for Christmas lunch, along with 60 of her family. I expect to be the entertainment!
Judith Collins, MP

For the first time ever, Jay-Jay and I are spending Christmas outside of New Zealand. We are travelling Europe for a mini OE. Sort of like a Contiki tour, but with reasonable-quality hotels, nice restaurants and hardly any bus travel with smelly, hungover strangers. Christmas Day will be spent in Venice and New Year's Eve will be in Barcelona. Can't wait.
Jay-Jay Feeney and Dominic Harvey, The Edge