What Kiwis Are Eating This Christmas: 2025 Is The Year TikTok Dictates What’s On Our Tables

Auckland, New Zealand __Food insights platform Appetise.io has released new data revealing what Kiwis are putting on their Christmas tables in 2025. Used by more than 100,000 households across New Zealand and Australia to plan, shop and cook their meals, the platform’s data shows viral online trends, rising costs and global flavours and are reshaping festive food traditions.

Appetise has identified three major trends defining Kiwi Christmas cooking in 2025:

Trend: Social media is the new sous-chef and it’s driving a more aesthetic Christmas table

Kiwis aren’t abandoning traditional Christmas desserts… they’re remixing and reimagining them through TikTok trends. Viral ingredients like pistachio (popularised by the the ‘Dubai chocolate’ trend), hot honey, miso and Biscoff are being added to classic festive dishes, with recipes such as this plan-based Biscoff cheesecake with hokey pokey ice-cream and Pistachio & White Chocolate Tiramisu Cups seeing a surge in engagement on Appetise.

Christmas cooking has also become highly visual and dishes are being designed for the camera - like this Salami Rose Platters, Eton Mess Cheesecake and Chocolate Brownie Pine Cones - all of which have gained popularity as households craft tables that look as good on social media as they taste.

Importantly, AI is also stepping into the kitchen. More home cooks are using Appetise’s AI-powered Recipe Recommender to generate personalised Christmas menus, discover new dishes and streamline their planning. “Search is now overtaking filters as the dominant way people navigate the platform which signals a clear shift toward faster, more intuitive meal planning tools,” comments Toby Hilliam, Co-Founder of Appetise Insights.

What’s more, Appetise’s search data shows an incredible 600% increase year on year in traffic coming from AI searches. NZ/AU households are cracking open ChatGPT rather than a cookbook

Asked whether trends have longevity, Hilliam explains that viral dishes tend to produce quick spikes in views and saves, but most remain ‘one-hit wonders’ after Christmas. The exception is showstopper recipes, which become five times more popular in November and December as cooks invest in visually impressive dishes for the holiday season.

Key insight: Viral dessert engagement on Appetise has tripled this season, with camera-ready dishes up 56% compared with last year.

Trend: Flavours are going lighter, fresher and more global with tropical ingredients leading the way

Christmas 2025 is also defined by lighter, globally inspired twists on familiar favourites.

Tropical fruits like mango, pineapple, coconut and papaya are shaping both main dishes and desserts. Recipes like Chargrilled Prawns with Mango and the platform’s most popular dessert this year, Tropical Mess (a fresh take on Eton Mess), are topping Christmas menus. A strong NZ strawberry crop after two difficult seasons is also driving a welcome return to fruit-led festive desserts.

Global flavours also continue to influence the Kiwi table, with miso glazes, gochujang marinades, sumac rubs and pomegranate dressings adding depth and brightness to traditional formats.

“Unsurprisingly, cost pressures are also shaping menus. Many households are making budget-friendly protein swaps, creating spreads of salads and sides rather than relying on a single centrepiece. Three of the seven most-engaged Christmas dishes on Appetise this year are salads,” comments Hilliam.

Key insight: Engagement with tropical-fruit recipes is up 19%, while budget sensitivity among users has risen to 27%, up from 17% in 2023.

Trend: Christmas planning begins earlier than ever and NZ leads the way in the organisation of ‘budget friendly’ Christmas fare

Appetise consistently sees two waves of festive planning including an early spike the week after Halloween and a final surge just before Christmas

This year, 2025 shows an even earlier start, with more users mapping out menus weeks ahead - especially in New Zealand. Kiwi households are engaging earlier and more heavily with festive recipes and are making greater use of tools like the AI Recipe Recommender to structure and refine their menus.

“Saving money continues to be the primary motivation for using Appetis and this priority is strengthening over time. 35% of users cited it as their main goal in 2025, compared with 32% in 2024 and 29% in 2023. This growing cost awareness is also shaping how people plan for seasonal occasions, with early signs that many households are preparing for a more budget-savvy Christmas, focusing on value without compromising on the celebrations that matter,” explains Hilliam.

Key insight: Christmas menu planning is starting earlier each year, with New Zealand users showing the strongest engagement across both November and December. They used ‘Christmas as a search filter on Appetise twice as much as Australians in the months November/December.

Hilliam says the findings are especially valuable for food companies heading into the biggest retail season of the year.

“The days of waiting months for consumer insights are over. Brands need to launch campaigns and products that reflect what people want right now and that’s exactly what this data shows,” concludes Hilliam.

About Appetise

Appetise is a free meal planning and smart shopping platform, serving Australia and New Zealand. Founded in NZ by husband-and-wife team Toby Hilliam (CEO) and Elise Hilliam (COO, trained nutritionist), the fast-growing platform now helps more than 100,000 users plan meals, build shopping lists, and connect directly to major supermarkets including Woolworths, New World and PAK’nSAVE.

It is also a powerful insights platform that helps FMCG brands understand the “who,” “what” and “why” behind consumer food purchases. By analysing motivations before the grocery shop, the occasions where products are consumed and how they are used after purchase, Appetise Insights gives FMCG marketers a full view of the shopper journey.

For more information, visit appetiseinsights.io

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