The Return of the Sebastopol Holiday Dinner
The Sebastopol Holiday Dinner, scheduled for Christmas Day, is back after a four-year hiatus
The Rotary Club of Sebastopol Sunrise is hosting the Sebastopol Holiday Dinner on Monday, Dec. 25, from 1 to 4 pm at the Community Church of Sebastopol. It’s a gigantic undertaking—they’re making food for 400 people this year, and the whole thing, from beginning to end, involves the efforts of 145 volunteers, according to organizer Kathy Rogers.
Thanks to COVID, it’s been four years since they last held this event.
“We are really excited,” Rogers said. “It’s now just two weeks away—and the show is on.”
“We'll have like 40 turkeys and six donated sliced hams,” she said. They’ll also have mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes and salad, as well as big sheet cakes from Safeway decorated with poinsettias. Mom’s Apple Pie is donating pies to the event.
“There will be 14 tables that sit 10 people each,” Rogers said. “All the tables will be decorated with live floral arrangements, and we’ll have stuffed animals and toys on every table.”
It’s these homey touches that make the Sebastopol Christmas dinners so popular, Rogers said.
“I know the word is getting out because like this one guy calls me up and he said, ‘Oh, I hear you're having the Christmas dinner again. Well, can you pick me up at transit station?’ He takes a bus from San Francisco to the Santa Rosa transit station, and then we pick him up because he wants to come to our Christmas dinner.”
Rogers said the diners come from all walks of life.
“We have a strong Hispanic community, some of whom have been coming for 20 years,” she said. “And the homeless, of course, and then people who just want to be around other people on Christmas Day.”
While there are always new faces, she said she also sees some of the same people year after year. “I don’t know their names, but I know their faces,” Rogers said.
Another thing that makes the event so popular is the toy giveaway. Every year there’s a separate section at one end of the dining room, filled with toys for kids. Some of the toys come from Toys for Tots, but Rogers said that the bulk of the toys come from fire department toy drives.
In addition, she said, “This is the first year that we're going to be signing up children under five to the Dolly Parton Imagination Library. They’ll get a free book mailed to them every month until they're five years old.”
She’s a little worried because, this being their first year back, they’re only planning on 400 people. Pre-COVID, they served 1,000 dinners.
“We’ve never run out of food before, and I hope we won’t this year,” she said, noting that she always worries about things before the event, but that it always works out.
All in all, because of the donations, the cost of the event is only $3,000.
This year, for the first time, they’ll use compostable plates instead of glass—which will allow them to dispense with what Rogers called “the frantic dishwashing.”
That means that Bill Sauber, the event’s volunteer coordinator, can deploy his volunteers elsewhere, greeting diners and otherwise spreading holiday cheer.
Rogers said the volunteers—like the diners—come from all walks of life—from the homeless to the wealthy. Some of their volunteers are Rotary Club members—from both Rotary Clubs in town. Others are just community members who want to help out.
There’s no shortage of volunteer jobs.
“Starting Friday before Christmas, it'll be a lot of setup: setting up the tables and tablecloths and flower arrangements. Setting up the toy section.” At the event itself there’s “bussing tables, preparing food, serving food, cleaning the kitchen, dishwashing, and clean-up.”
But according to Sauber, volunteering is about much more than doing a specific job. “My job is first of all to make everyone there understand that their job is not to bus tables, it's not to serve food, it's not to man the toy section, it’s to welcome our guests and make them smile and make them happy and wish them a Merry Christmas and express our appreciation for their being there,” he said.
The Sebastopol Holiday Dinner will be held on Monday, Dec. 25, from 1 to 4 pm at the Community Church of Sebastopol, 1000 Gravenstein Hwy. N., Sebastopol. To volunteer for this event, go here. To donate, go here.