Registrations have now opened for Nelson’s popular Mayor’s Christmas Lunch.
Hosted on Christmas Day and funded by a $10,000 grant from the council’s mayoral fund, the event caters to 200 people.
This year’s lunch will be hosted at the Beachside Conference and Events Centre instead of the Pūtangitangi Greenmeadows Centre like earlier years.
Tāhunanui Community Hub manager Murray Leaning organises the lunch.
“It’s not about the food, you can you can still be lonely on a full stomach,” he says.
“For me, it’s more about getting that sense of community going and looking after the people who don’t have any connection to the community.”
Attendees get a real feast, with past lunches laying out a spread that included lamb, ham, chicken, salads, roast veggies, pavlova, jelly, and ice-cream, with non-alcoholic grape juice to drink and goodie bags to take home.
Choirs and quizzes and other fun also occurred to ensure that the lunch was fun and not just a meal.
“We try and spread the love as much as we can, because it's just miserable to be alone at Christmas.”
Murray adds that he has “massive respect” for Mayor Nick Smith’s involvement in the event.
“He turns up at half past 10 for a 12 o’clock start, and he helps lay the tables, and he greets everybody, and he helps serve the food, and then he helps to clean up afterwards,” he says.
“He just gets… ear-bashed by everybody about rates, water, and roads and dogs and rubbish bins, and he just plants smile on his face and wishes everybody a Merry Christmas. He’s got a real soft spot for it for whatever reason.”
Nick says the lunch was a “proud tradition” that could only occur due to the generosity of the volunteers who make it happen.
“The ambition with the Mayor’s Christmas [Lunch] is to ensure that nobody in our community is alone on that special day of the year,” he says.
“I enjoy the fact that our community is taking on board the true spirit of Christmas. It is the season of generosity.”
Carol Shirley, owner of Beachside and its Gourmet Catering, donated use of the function centre for the event.
“More than ever this year, a lot of people have struggled, we’ve seen it in that in the business itself. I think everyone deserves some happiness at Christmas, and it’s just our way of giving back.”
The Mayor’s Christmas Lunch kicks off from 11:30am on Christmas Day and was open to Nelsonians who may be alone to financially unable to celebrate Christmas.
To register, you can call Nelson City Council on 03 546 0200 or visit this webpage.
Across the city’s border with Tasman, the Holy Trinity Anglican Church on the Hill in Richmond is gearing up for its own Christmas lunch.
The event has been running for more than a decade and has capacity for 150 attendees.
Vicki Spiers has been helping to organise the lunch for 11 years now.
“Having somewhere to be on Christmas Day is quite important,” she says.
“You get a lot of people that are living alone or, for whatever reason, don’t have the capacity to go to a family member or friend’s, and so they come to us.”
The church hall gets decorated, Christmas music plays, and two courses of traditional food are served to ensure the event feels festive.
“It’s not just about the food, it’s the whole experience, really.”
Free tickets for the event are expected to be made available this week, and can be collected from the church, Age Concern’s Richmond office, and the Richmond Mall’s information desk.
“We’ve got, probably, a bit of a core of regulars now. They’ve made it their Christmas Day experience,” Vicki says.
She adds that the continued community support has been “amazing”, with volunteers lined up to begin the meal preparation on Christmas Eve, and businesses eager to re-pledge their support despite the tough times.
“I’ve had a couple of suppliers say to me, ‘Well, why would I not?’ … That’s a pretty cool response.”
Tasman Mayor Tim King is among those who contribute to the event, chipping in with a “small contribution” of $450 from his mayoral fund.
He initially felt obliged to attend, keeping up the tradition of his predecessor, Richard Kempthorne.
“It’s turned into something that I actually look forward to and really enjoy going to do every year.”
After a going along to a couple, he had seen how important the event was after noticing those diners who attended each year.
“Many people are fortunate enough for that to be a really positive time, but there are a lot of people for whom Christmas is not quite as straightforward, simple, or positive,” he says.
“It’s a really important part of what the community does to help support those who… don’t have those connections.”
