If you thought your do on the big day was mayhem, spare a thought for the Groves family clan, with 285 members and counting!
Each year, around 300 people flock to the Groves’ Christmas knees-up – 285 of them are blood relatives, the rest are partners and step-children who’ve been lovingly adopted by Australia’s biggest brood.
Spanning four generations, the members of this family travel from all corners of the country to attend – places such as Perth, Townsville and rural NSW – to meet at Glen Cromie Caravan Park in Drouin, Victoria.
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Woman’s Day was lucky enough to join them for this year’s Christmas party! Arriving there we were immediately greeted with babies in prams and women sprawled over picnic blankets, digging into plates of ham, potato salad and creamy coleslaw.
The Grove siblings.
Groups of men stand together in the shade, sharing a yarn and a cold beer, while kids of all ages giggle and tumble on the green, the older kids walking hand-in-hand with tubby tots, still too young to be steady on their feet.
It was beautiful to see what brought all these people together, family.
“It doesn’t matter if you have a hot dinner, a cold dinner, if there are presents under the tree… as long as you’re all together having lunch or tea,” says Kath McGuane, 64.
Kath, who is one of 16 credits these values to her devoted parents Bill and Nellie Groves, who sadly passed in 1991. Bill died just five days after Nellie, apparently of a broken heart.
They were the classic Aussie battlers, but they made sure their children understood what the day was really all about.
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“It wasn’t about what they had or didn’t have. It was just about having everyone over, being together – they just showed us all respect,” says Chrissy Jasiewicz, 55, and sibling number 14.
“We used to have 30 dinner plates on the bench that Mum and Dad would knock up for us for Christmas lunch,” adds sibling number 15, Peter Groves, 54.
These days the clan keeps things simple by each providing for their immediate family in a picnic-style affair, and they all just pitch in together to clean up.
Santa always arrives, with the male relatives each taking turns to don the red suit and beard, and presents are given only to kids under the age of 15.
With a family this size, they keep it simple: parents buy for their own kids, while the adults have a “no-present” policy, but they do love to exchange a good Christmas card!
Read more about the Grove’s family Christmas in Woman’s Day, on sale 22nd December.
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