New cook for Christmas
Some people find cooking Christmas dinner stressful. And then there is Jim Henderson.
This year, Henderson will be cooking Creemore’s 12th Annual Community Christmas dinner for the first time for approximately 150 guests.
“I’ve cooked dinner for 1,000 people before,” says Jim, who cooked for the opening of the Great Northern Exhibition Fair Grounds, has catered weddings and owned two restaurants in Wasaga Beach and Stayner about 15 years ago.
Now the Managing Director of Fawcett Funeral Home in Creemore, Henderson says cooking Christmas dinner won’t be stressful because he likes doing it.
“The holiday season is a time for giving. There is no stress because people are enjoying the meal.”
The free dinner has grown from feeding about 20 when it started 12 years ago, to about 150 today. It is funded by donations of money and food.
Local farmers provide many of the vegetables and turkeys. Home bakers pitch in with squares and cookies. This Christmas, the New Farm has donated a 25-pound turkey, which will be cooked along with a few smaller ones.
Other costs are taken care of by corporate sponsors such as Village Builders. As well, a trust account at TD Bank is set up year round for anyone who would like to make a donation.
Every year, volunteers aged seven to 95 help run the dinner. They cook the food, decorate the Station and set the tables for people who might not be sharing Christmas with family.
Volunteers are available to drive guests to the event and to deliver dinners to people who cannot leave their homes. This year, event organizer Diane McKay is looking for decorations to use at the Station, as well as for volunteer elves to hand out presents from Santa.
“Some people have come as guests or volunteers since the beginning, so it’s like seeing your family,” says Diane.
Jim has volunteered at the Community Christmas Dinner for years. So when Diane asked him if he could cook the meal this year, he had no hesitation.
Jim will spend two days with other volunteers in the kitchen before Christmas preparing the food. The dinner will be cooked at the Station on Christmas Day so that, according to Diane, “when you come in the doors, all the heavenly aromas come out to you.
“We make extra stuffing because some of the guys love to take it home the next day. The cranberry sauce doesn’t come out of a can either,” says Diane, who makes the sauce at home.
Diane and her husband, Brian McKay, got involved with the dinner when their daughters started spending the holiday away with their in-laws.
“People are here because they want to be here,” Diane explains. “They are not obligated like it can be with family. It relieves the stress that a lot of people feel at this time of year.”
To reserve a place setting at the dinner, call Diane at 705-466-3126. Admission is a donation of a non-perishable item for the Salvation Army Food Bank at Hope Acres.
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