Christmas Picnic spread

The clatter of plates, the popping corks, the jingling of glasses, and the rattle of knives and forks mingle with peals of merry laughter, with the buzz of conversation, and the splash of the waves upon the beach.”
Sounds like a jolly way to spend Christmas day to me – far more jolly indeed than slaving away inside over a hot stove.Would you believe the quote is from ‘The Illustrated Melbourne Post’ of December 22, 1864?
It seems our forebears knew how to celebrate Christmas in the great outdoors. In their book “Christmas in the Colonies”, Maisy Stapleton and Patricia McDonald describe how they would flock to local beauty spots or favourite retreats:
“On the coast, picnickers could choose between shady beaches or rocky harbourside shelves; they could row upstream to a sheltered riverside inlet or join the jostling crowds on a harbour pleasure boat that plied back and forth across the bay.”Australians have always been great picnickers yet many of us still spend Christmas inside eating roast turkey and plum pud.  Weird, isn’t it?
Especially when it’s so hot outside – and that most of us have shed our ties to the mother country. Why we persist with these customs is beyond me.At this time of the year, summer berries and stone fruits are at their peak. Cherries and mangoes are abundant.  Seafood (think prawns, lobsters, Balmain bugs, yabbies) is plentiful. Tomatoes and avocados are ripe.
Delis and food halls are groaning with smoked salmon and ocean trout, glistening salmon roe, luscious dips, gleaming marinated olives, semi-dried tomatoes, roasted capsicum and eggplant, crusty fresh bread, star-studded mince pies, shortbread biscuits, Christmas cakes in a variety of sizes – so it really doesn’t require much effort to assemble a spectacular spread.If you have time to cook, make a batch of chilled gazpacho and take it with you in a thermos to your favourite picnic spot. For a Christmas flourish, top with fresh crab meat or a few peeled baby prawns just before serving.
Follow with individual turkey, sage and cranberry pies and a selection of salads (potato mixed with Dijonnaise and chopped red onion; roasted kumara and beetroot with orange zest and cumin).
For dessert, individual coconut pavs – with berries and cream.Remember to take along a rug or plastic cloth to throw over the grass; the insect repellant; salt and pepper; a wine cooler, band-aids (just in case)  – and don’t forget the champagne and bon-bons!