The Shawville United Church welcomed nearly 200 people for its annual Christmas dinner on Nov. 20, a tradition it’s been hosting for longer than many of its current members can remember.
By 4:45 p.m., the meal’s official start time, the church was filled with people waiting to be let into the dining room, where a long buffet table had been filled with all sorts of dishes, hot and cold, including mashed potatoes, gravy and, of course, turkey.
Elaine Lang, the church’s designated “social convener”, once again led the charge to organize the supper, assigning special cooking duties to various members to ensure all components of the feast were taken care of.
Bonnie Richardson, for example, was tasked with boiling the potatoes, and spent the better part of the evening stooped over several steaming pots of starchy water to ensure the feasters were never short on turkey’s trusted sidekick.
“It’s a pretty basic menu, it’s the one we’ve had for years,” Lang said. “I came fifty-some years ago and [the church] had been at it before that.”
At a table in the back corner of the room, three long-time members of the church – Nancy Alexander, Joan Gray and Marilyn Elliott – had been tasked with dishing out the slices of pie.
“The desserts are lemon pie, pumpkin pie, apple pie, or Christmas pudding,” Gray said, noting all were made by members of the church.
When asked how long the tradition had been going on, Gray said “fifty years maybe. I really don’t know. But it’s usually turkey.”
“But one year we did ham and that wasn’t a hit,” Alexander recalled.
The tradition was put on hold for a few years during the COVID-19 pandemic, as were many across the county, and made its comeback last year.
Lang said proceeds from the 193 tickets sold will got go back into the church.
