For many, Christmas can be the loneliest time of year but thanks to Peter Benson and other kind volunteers, the 4th annual Christmas lunch was held in Whitehill on Christmas Day 2022. The event brought together those who may otherwise be alone on Christmas Day - a perfect opportunity to make new friends and for all to enjoy themselves in a relaxed and fun way.
41 guests checked in for the lunch on Christmas Day at Whitehill Village Hall. The event was completely free to the guests, generously sponsored by ourselves and 16 other local businesses. The guests came from all parts of town to enjoy a special meal in warm surroundings with friendly company. Transport, entertainment, food, drink and gifts were all included free of charge to the guests.
Preparations had started 11 months earlier, when Amie and Jason from Tasty Buns, set about soliciting the necessary funds. During the autumn, 3 members of the Mens’ Shed had constructed 9 tray-stands to facilitate the serving process on each table, and everything came to a peak on Christmas Eve, as 16 helpers prepared the hall, the vegetables, decorations, drinks, coat-rack and goody bags.
The organisers said that Christmas Day dawned to a worrying message - one of Santa’s reindeers had caught a nasty bug on his way to work, so the team had to come up with a rescue package for 16 guests who were scheduled to travel via reindeer-sled! A couple of extra drivers, plus a second trip by Clive Handy’s minibus, and within minutes they were on their way to the Christmas lunch at Whitehill Village Hall, where proceedings got under way, only a few minutes delayed.
Cooks Jaki Partridge, Susannah Williams and Fran Handy produced an excellent traditional lunch - hot and efficiently served by the many helpers. A quiz, bingo, and raffle were interspersed between the courses and kept the assembled people entertained without interfering with the animated conversations.
As the guests departed they were each handed a bulging goody bag containing a cream tea, cheese & crackers, Lebkuchen and a small bottle of something delicious to warm their hearts.
As the photos show, the organisers put on another superb event which we were pleased to be a small part of by way of sponsorship. The organisers expressed a big Thank You to everyone who contributed in so many ways to this successful and important event for the local community.
The sponsors, without which the event could not have happened were: Coomers Timber & Building Supplies, 350 Burger, Altis Industries, AMK Group, AutoDan, Blacknest Golf, C&S Coachworks, Flamin Tucker, Fresh Start, Gecko HiVoltage Specialists, Homes Estate Agents, Liphook Auto Services, Runfold Plastics, Strudwick’s Property Services, Tasty Buns, Woolmer Service Station, W-B Community Trust.
We were pleased to subsequently sponsor this event again for Christmas 2023.
