Little Christmas, the 12th day of Christmas or Nollaig Na Mban is a tradition that has slowly ebbed over the years in Ireland. In NZ, for the second year, it has seen a resurgence of this tradition. Our Irish Mammies have been celebrating in different ways around the country, whether it's just meeting up with one other mammy or getting together in a group with or without the kids. Our group uses it as a way to keep our traditions alive, even though we are on the other side of the world. It also acts as a conduit to introduce new people to the group to provide more than the digital connection.

One of the sites we want to recommend if you are keen to here more about the amazing women in Irish history is a Facebook group called - Irish Women in History - A Nollaig Na Mban celebration. We enjoyed this page as it showed us the strength of Irish women in history.

Keen to learn more on Nollaig Na mBan, we think RTE told it best when it shared its traditions based on January 6th - View it here.

This year I attended the Auckland Picnic at the Domain, pictured, we had families bring the kids or add us to a stop on their biking adventure for the day. We had people travel large distances to attend and from the event we have a top secret announcement that was discussed and a further night out minus the kids at the Clare Inn on January 29th.

Building our community brings me a huge sense of pride, even writing on our new website, delivered with the support of the Irish Embassy in NZ, gives me butterflies. With a few exciting things happening in the next few months it feels like our group is strengthening. Thanks for all the support so far.

Ami