Sophie Vine's Xmas Wish List

In the lead up to Christmas, we check in with Sophie Vine, of Vines of the Wild, to find out what’s made it onto her festive wish list, and how she’ll be spending the holidays...

What are your plans for Christmas this year?
It’s a busy year this year - we’ll go to Dale’s side of the family. They are on a farm near Gisborne, so we’ll stay there, and then drive back in the afternoon. It’s only an hour, so it’s not that far. Then mum and dad have a small holiday house in Anglesea, so we’ll go from one grandparent to the other, and the kids will go from the farm - to the ocean!

That sounds lovely!
Yeah, it will be pretty lowkey. We’re in the process of trying to start our own Christmas traditions. We’ve done them in previous years, but Van was too young to know what was going on. But this year, we can start to implement those things. I’m actually really looking forward to Christmas this year - I think the kids are at a really cool age to enjoy it.

Have you sorted out what you’ll be getting them?

I am into ‘minimal’ and not too much wastage. I really like that idea of ‘Something you want, something you need, something to wear and something to read.’ But it’s so hard to stick to. But we’ll start to make suggestions through the shop. I want to do baby and toddler options - we sell books, so that’s ‘something to read’. The ‘need’ we have got, and that’s things like our backpacks and torches - it may not be their first choice, but they will love them (because, let’s face it, there’s nothing worse as a kid than when you get something you need, and it’s socks!). So I think we’ve got most things covered…

It’s so easy to get carried away at Christmas…

It is. It can get too much. Especially when the kids are little - it sets a precedent if they start to remember how much they’re getting. I think this year we are going to be really careful with what Van starts to expect. Because last year I got out of control...

Didn’t we all…

His birthday was a few days before, so I was dividing everything. I was like, ‘Is that enough?’ And then on the day, we started to hide things after he opened them, because we started to feel a bit sick….

That’s a great idea!

There was too much stuff, and we were like, ‘We can’t give all that to him!’ I think we’ll also try to do that thing where as many gifts as you get, you go through and donate the same amount to charity. Just so what is coming in is the same as what is going out, and the kids learn about helping other people.

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