With just four nights' sleep until Christmas, many Kiwis will be eagerly looking at the forecast hoping for some fine weather - and that's exactly what MetService is predicting.
New Zealand has seen a mixed bag of weather already this summer, with rain, hail, thunder and sun highlighting this month's weather.
MetService meteorologist Peter Little told Newshub the lead-up to Christmas is still looking unpredictable.
"We've had quite a lot of thunderstorm activity this week and showers which have developed during the afternoons and evenings and the weather situation is changing only very, very slowly," Little said.
"So for much of this week, it remains quite unstable. We're going to see further showers developing during the afternoons and evenings and there's still a risk of thunderstorms."
But there is good news for Kiwis, with MetService predicting the atmosphere to become more stable, with Christmas Day set to be fine and hot.
"The likelihood of thunderstorms and heavy showers starts to decrease as we head into Christmas Day," he said.
"There's not going to be a lot of wind over the country and that's good news for many places, particularly Wellingtonians."
The lack of strong wind will see temperatures sitting at average to above average for this time of year, with Little predicting most of New Zealand to be in the twenties on Christmas Day.
But he did warn there could be a few showers around, particularly for inland places, but nothing to disrupt Kiwis' Christmas day plans.
"So many coastal places will have some sea breezes which may just cool things down slightly in the afternoon, a nice refreshing breeze," Little told Newshub.
"But those places inland are still looking quite hot, still have some showers popping up, but overall they'll be quite isolated. So looks like over most of the country, the weather shouldn't impact too many people's barbecue plans."
Little also had good news for Boxing Day, with more fine and hot weather on the cards.
"That sort of continues into Boxing Day as well. It's looking mostly fine across the country, just these sort of afternoon heat showers inland, which will be isolated in nature, so certainly for most places, it's looking like a pretty nice period of weather over Christmas," he said.
It comes after large parts of the North Island were warned to "take shelter" with fears of flash flooding, slips and dangerous driving conditions on Tuesday.
At lunchtime on Tuesday loud rolling thunder could be heard in Hamilton as rain and hail pelted down. Images from a Hamilton property show large build-ups of hail around the house.
"I have never in my life heard thunder quite like today, it's been rolling constantly for the last 10 minutes without stopping," one person said.
