2021 Christmas Day Meal

24 volunteers, 25 guests in the building – a good crowd gathered to celebrate Christmas Day together at Sheldon Road Methodist Church. Some were unable to join us for various reasons, mainly sickness, and we were able to deliver 4 meals to homes later in the day. We had hoped to cater for 70 people, but in the end, we reduced the number of covers set due to the COVID situation; we set out 60 covers to include the volunteers as well.

We served a traditional roast meal, followed by Christmas pudding, mince pies, mints, coffee and tea, and guests were given a small Christmas gift bag when they left.

The tables were beautifully decorated by some of the volunteers, while other volunteers prepared themselves for serving at tables and clearing up throughout the day.  Just before the guests arrived, we even had an impromptu visit from Santa and Rudolph!

Guests started to arrive at 12.30, to be greeted by a table host, and welcomed with some festive singing from a couple of members of Allsorts Choir, who had kindly given up their time to be with us. We also had a splendid performance between courses from Linda, Paul and Sue: an action-packed rendition of 12 days of Christmas, with which many joined in.

We had a core team working on the administration of the event, signing up volunteers and guests, and buying the food.  Food preparation had started on Christmas Eve, with a peeling party and cooking the turkeys, and then our amazing team of 3 cooks, headed by Liz, the chef for this year, started cooking early on Christmas Day just after the service had finished in church.

It was obvious that everyone really enjoyed themselves and appreciated the opportunity to be together to share a meal.  We are so very grateful to all those who made the event possible, Chippenham Borough Lands Charity for the generous grant they gave, and Morrisons for supplying all the vegetables and the mints.  And of course, all our wonderful volunteers, who also gave up their Christmas Day time to bless others.

Quotes….

• “it’s a lovely meal - it’s the best meal I’ve had. I was invited out two weeks ago to a local hotel who’re meant to serve top class food, but I was really let down – the dinner was cold and only half cooked.  It’s made my Christmas day.”
• “You couldn’t do better if you tried.” 
• “The tables are set up beautifully, and the food is cooked very well.”
• “Only one complaint, the plates aren’t big enough!” 
• “We appreciate the amount of time that has been spent and the huge amount of preparations – they’re excellent.”