Havre holds another successful Community Christmas Dinner

The Havre Community Christmas Dinner at the Havre Eagles Club Sunday served 650 meals Saturday, marking another successful year in the decades-long history of the event.

Community Christmas Dinner Committee Chair Doug Denny said the number of meals served this year was about the same as last year, but overall the event seems to have gone smoother despite the previous week's weather.

Denny said they were a little short of drivers for the deliveries this year, but given the extreme weather conditions in the days leading up to Christmas that isn't surprising, and they otherwise got plenty of volunteers.

He said they got a healthy mix of veteran volunteers and first-timers that he hopes might come back next year, and they've said they had a good time.

While the event has put another successful year in the books the COVID-19 pandemic rocked the event in more ways than one.

On top of making gatherings more dangerous and forcing more people to opt for deliveries, the virus that spread across the world starting in late 2019 and through the years since then claimed the life of the event's primary organizer Tom Farnham.

Since Farnham's death July of last year, Denny said the decision was made to run the event with a committee instead of a single main organizer, and he's been the chair in those two years after being a volunteer for well over a decade.

"In one way or another (my wife and I) have been coming down here every Christmas since we moved to Havre 20 years ago," he said.

In the years since he started at the dinner, he said, he's enjoyed seeing it grow and expand each year, but COVID-19 more or less forced them to hit the reset button on their expectations since it changed so much for so many.

This year Denny said, to-go orders are up, but overall the numbers compared to last year were about the same, which he expected, and considering the weather the number of people who came in person is a good sign.

One aspect of this year's dinner he was a little disappointed in was that they had to change from serving turkey to ham as the meat.

He said the price of turkey climbed extremely high this year and they just didn't have the money for it, so they had to go with ham and he's still waiting on feedback as to how that change went over with the attendees.

He said ham is much easier to prepare, so the cooks definitely liked it, but he would like to hear from others.

One attendee, Sue McCormick said it's much more important to her that the event was bringing people together in the spirit of the holiday, and as long as the food is good and everyone's happy, it doesn't matter much to her.

Indeed, the Eagles Club was host to many people that day, and the fact that people can sit down and enjoy the holiday regardless of socio-economic standing, Denny said, is a big part of why he loves the event so much.