Samantha Hayes Christmas is the time for gratitude
You can really track how dramatically the life of broadcaster Samantha Hayes has changed over the past three years by looking at how she’s spent her last three festive seasons. On Boxing Day in 2018, she was flying internationally to Argentina, where, through the magic of the international date line, she got to have a second go at Christmas with her boyfriend Jeroen “Jay” Blaauw.
The pair, who have been friends for years, are both keen travellers and explorers, and the spirit of adventure has served them pretty well because for Christmas 2019, they were in the hazy love-fog of new parenthood with then-three-month-old son Marlow.
“You never think about the possibility of not being able to go home”
Now it’s Christmas 2020 and while December this year will be a little less new-baby-exhausted and a lot less travel-oriented, it would be foolish to describe this year as anything other than, well, chaotic for all involved.
Balancing out that global chaos with some good, old-fashioned festive pandemonium, Sam and Jay will be hosting the Hayes family’s holiday celebrations this year, complete with a sprawl of siblings and cousins.
“As Christmas gets closer, I’m starting to realise the enormity of the challenge ahead, but I think it’s going to be super-fun,” Sam, 36, says with great enthusiasm.
Her parents are flying up from South Otago, her brother and sister-in-law – and their five-year-old twins – are flying up
