Keep Christ in Christmas Council Party

12/16/2018

Council: 114 - BANGOR

Project Description:

Our Keep Christ in Christmas Party started with committee planning and announcement in our Nov/Dec newsletter. We also sent invitation to all local council members along with widows of the Knights, local Clergy and Sisters. On the morning of Dec 15, several council members came to set up the hall with festive table clothes, several artificial trees and a rustic creche built a few years ago and help several four foot statues of the nativity.

The purpose is to honor the meaning of Christmas within our celebration. All gathered between 5:30 and 6:00pm. We offered a welcome and thank you at the beginning followed grace prior to the meal. All who attended brought pot luck of a casserole, salad or dessert. The Knight’s provided turkey, ham potato and stuffing and there was plenty of food for all. The meal was accompanied by much wonderful socializing and the room was blessed with the friendship and love. Rachel Fergeson, wife of Brother David donated her time and supplies for a beautiful table center pieces. It was wonderful to have this in the St. John’s Church Hall where we had plenty of room to eat and socialized and parking was plentiful. We shared with the guest the posters from another Knights event “Keep Christ In Christmas” poster contest. The posters were a nice touch to the decorations. The weather was calm this year and Sir Brother Matt Madore provided Christmas music with a traditional sing along. About 10 children joined Matt to sing and dance. The kids also enjoyed the Crèche and it helped connect them to the true meaning of the season. That seemed to conclude the knight Or so we thought….

Around 6:30pm Santa arrived with a big “Ho Ho Ho”. He wheeled in a large wagon of presents and he also had an elf to help him. Each family brought a present for the kids that attended. The presents had the children’s name on it and Santa would call out the name and they could sit on his lap, have a picture taken if they weren’t too scared of him. All of the children waited to open their presents until the last child’s name was called by Santa (over a 10-15 minute time period) so the children had amazing patience and then finally they were able to rip into their gifts.

The night concluded with several Knights staying behind to transform the Christmas Party back into the church hall.

So many Knights contributed to the success of the celebration: Brother Marvin Garrick delighted our taste buds with his Turkey, Ham, and Stuffing and Brother Frank Jordan, Brother BIll Bennett and Brother David Orazio assisted in the kitchen. Grand Knight Keith Forbes, Brother Bill Bennett and Mike Caruso helped Marvin with slicing and serving the meats. Brothers John Barry, Jamie Berube and his wife Danielle, Jeff Schaller, Frank Jordan,, Keith Forbes and Bill Bennett all donated a few hours to set up the creche and to decorate and set the tables. Many others helped throughout the planning process. Ed Beaulieu helped coordinate a 50/50 and Jon Harvey and family collected the presents.

I’m hearing from Brother Knights how wonderful the Christmas party was. To many it was like a memory of how Christmas gatherings were many years ago. To others it was wonderful having the children present and of course the manger with Jesus to remind us to true meaning of Christmas.