Hey. Look at us. We made it.
The end of 2023 is almost upon us and Paramount staff are all set and ready to eat, drink and be merry! The Water Cooler sat down with almost everyone over a rather questionable mug of eggnog and 3864 packets of Cadbury chocolate baubles to find out how our amazing staff will be spending their festive holidays.
Jarrod Villani: With three boys under 10, it will be a combination of finding shade to play cricket under and doing my best to avoid being drowned during games of keepings-off in the pool. We have some lovely families near us, so I expect the front gate to be a thoroughfare of kids and their parents dropping by for lots of family summer fun, food and celebration. Have a fabulous Christmas team!
Beverley McGarvey: I am lucky enough to be travelling to Ireland to spend Christmas with my family in Belfast. Now my kids are old enough to watch movies and TV shows and (fingers crossed) sleep for some of the 32-hour door to door journey, I am not dreading the flight and just really looking forward to a break and maybe even a white Christmas.
Yeesum Lo: Home to Hong Kong for a cold-weather Christmas full of long cycling trips, dim sum and hotpot!
Gareth Tomlin: I’ll be looking at regrowing my first ever moustache for New Year’s Eve, after an initial positive response was ruined by me accidentally shaving it off due to habit and muscle memory
Daniel Doody: Well, I’ve got a two and three-year-old, so this holiday. I’m planning to say yes to everything the boys want. (That’s a brave move).
Ruby Taylor: I’m heading on a 10-night cruise to New Zealand for Christmas and Hamilton Island for my 30th in January … not counting down the days, hours, minutes and seconds AT ALL.
Lauren Downie: I’ll be spending the holidays driving my two cats between Sydney and Melbourne so they can terrorise my family back home, just praying they (and I) don’t get carsick. Otherwise, a thrilling few weeks of eating, drinking and catching up on the very many shows I have had ‘on the list’ for months
Tom Voss: Over the holiday season I will be eating exorbidant amounts of seafood before heading up North to Queensland for the Wildlands music festival where i’ll be boogie-ing it up to Peggy Gou on the dancefloor!
Jemma Barge: Time with family, I have two sets of parents – Mum, stepdad, dad and stepmum plus my partners family so we are trying to fit everyone in this year (god help me). Then we are adventuring to Airlie beach with a group of friends to hang by the pool. Looking forward to it this year lots of reading, hopefully swimming and eating!
Jodie Garth: For the Christmas holidays, I plan on walking my dog more and generally having time out to relax and not checking my phone every 10 minutes!
Hillary Lee: For the holiday season, I’m planning on catching up with family and friends back from university and high school who I haven’t seen in a while! Hopefully the summer grants us with good weather to head to the beach.
Emily McCammon: This holiday season I have so much planned with friends and family – it is my favourite time of year. I am doing festive activities with friends like pub Christmas Trivia, making Christmas cake with my family, and camping leading into New Year’s with my partner’s family. I also cannot wait to take my cat and dog Christmas light looking.
Helen Humphrey: After the festivities and Boxing Day are over I’m planning on doing a Marie Kondo and undertaking a Swedish Death clean ! I plan to be ruthless getting rid of everything from cupboards and drawers that have not been regularly worn or used in the last 12 months, shredding no longer needed paperwork and clearing out the garage in preparation for renovations in 2024.
Alison Briers: Lots of family and social gatherings, some bits & pieces around my new home and plenty of time to relax.
Ashleigh Wells: Mostly, I plan to eat my body weight in potato bake. I also plan to dress up my dogs in matching reindeer outfits, going to be a blast.
Matt Doust: I LOVE Christmas food – ham, pavlova, prawns and delicious desserts. I plan on getting into the kitchen to make lots of yummy food to enjoy with family and friends over the Christmas break. I’m also hoping to get to the beach as MUCH as possible and a road trip up north.
Eli Fisher: I’m very excited for these holidays as it’s been an incredibly busy year! My family and I are going up the coast where we’ll spend many full days in the pool or at the beach and, in my case, being sunburnt. We love the festivities of this time of year, particularly grand Christmas trees, gingerbread houses, carols played in shopping centres and the inevitable Michael Bublé special. We celebrate Hanukkah, an 8-day festival based around a story of a miracle that involved oil – so we eat donuts and latkes (basically hash browns) and generally have a great time. Wishing everyone a merry Christmas, a happy Hanukkah, and a safe, peaceful and happy new year filled, most importantly, with new editions of The Water Cooler!
Andrew Oborn: After a lifetime of enjoying Aussie summers, my wife and I are taking the kids to the USA for a few weeks, so I’m excited for my first white Christmas! We’ll be spending time in New York before heading to Atlanta to stay with my sister, who has lived there for nearly 20 years and hasn’t celebrated Christmas with Australian family in that time. We’ll then fly over to San Francisco for a few days, before a road trip to Yosemite National Park where we’ll ring in the new year, then continue driving down to LA where we’ll finish off the trip off by letting the kids loose at Disneyland!
Herman Misfud: Going to a place called the art house in Coffs Harbour great accommodation on emerald beach just taking it easy and try my luck at fishing.
Kathy Fernandez: For the past 12 month my partner and I have been converting a VW transporter into a camper van (aka as the van money pit). We have named her the ‘Venga Bus’. Over the holiday season we will be taking the Venga Bus down to Kangaroo Valley for some camping.
Natasha Coxhead: Home to the farm near the Coromandel in NZ for a few weeks, Christmas Day spent with all the family trying not to be too competitive at the lawn games or with Bad Santa. Followed by time spent at the ‘bach’ in Mt Maunganui.
John O’Brien: This summer will be action packed. It all kicks off by moving into our new house then off down the coast to enjoy some quality family time at the beach…just need to convince my two and a half year old, Henry that he won’t be eaten by a shark! If that’s not enough action, the family and I are excited to sit down on Jan 8 and watch our newest summer hit Gladiators! Although, I’m a little fearful with two boys our new house will become a Gladiators challenge course!!
Christopher Jones: I’ll be spending most of my time with my Christmas obsessed kids making gingerbread houses, Christmas-light hunting, watching Christmas movies and getting into the Christmas spirit with lots of family time. Santa has his work cut-out this year with a lot of impossible requests to fulfil! After Christmas we are escaping to country Victoria for a week to spend some time on a small farm, then I’ll be back in very early January, setting up for 2024’s brand-new 10 News First bulletins.
Felicity Shearer: I’m looking forward to Christmas morning with the kids, and spending time with family visiting from out of state!
Sean Marsicovetere: Coming from a large Italian family, Christmas Day is a big affair. It’ll be spent at my aunty’s house in Kew with around 25 of us for Christmas lunch; lasagne, roast turkey, prawns and pudding…. this year is extra special as we have new additions to the Christmas table including my 18-month-old niece Violet, so I’ll be on ‘Uncle duties’ over the Christmas break. It’s a busy time of year… a week later the celebrations continue with my birthday falling on January 1. Once Christmas and New Year’s is out of the way, I’m looking forward to some down time on the Mornington Peninsula with my partner.
Voula Kobolis: I’m staying in Melbourne this Christmas, I’m dog sitting my friends 11-month-old chocolate Labrador, Lily, (they’re off to Europe for a white Christmas…boo hoo). Looking forward to lots of walks around Albert Park Lake with Lily, a few winery visits and having friends over for a home cooked meal.
Vivian Tang: I will be driving around to all the neighbourhoods that have their Christmas display lights on and blasting Mariah Carey.
Wayne Cheung: Probably the ten or so BBQs planned, downtime for a wedding to plan and maybe a trip to Tassie!
Tameeka Mathwin: An AirB&B house in South Australia, big enough for the four of us and my sister and her family. The days will be spent with the five little cousins living in pool and the adults eating too much, playing cards and constantly telling the kids to stay still while we reapply the sunscreen (not to mention a few sneaky G&Ts). Well, that’s the plan…
Bronwyn Fardon: Four-wheel driving on Rainbow Beach (hopefully) and learning to surf at Maroochydore!
Paul Perigo: Looking forward to our December neighbourhood walks to enjoy the ever-increasing festive lights and creative lawn displays and singing along too loudly in the car to my 2023 Xmas Yay! Spotify playlist.
Alex Thexeira: I will be living my best Island Boy Life and travelling to the Seychelles for roughly 2.5 weeks
Mitch Dehnel: I’m heading over to the UK & France and excited to re-unite with my little sister in Paris as she now lives in Berlin
Simone Cowcher: Heading outback to regional WA to visit her parents where she grew up in Williams
