Final preparations are underway for Henry’s Christmas Dinner at the legion.
The free dinner will be held on Christmas Day from 11:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Olds Legion. The event is a tradition started by the late Henry Sonnenberg.
He owned and operated the Olds Bakery for more than 30 years. It's from there that he began cooking and serving Christmas dinners for people who had no place else to go for a Christmas meal and celebration. Today, the building houses the Different Strokes art gallery and shop.
Sonnenberg started organizing his Christmas dinners in 1978 and continued doing so for 37 years with help from members of the Olds Lions Club and other volunteers. He passed away in 2017.
Two of the individuals working on this year's event are Dennis Wilkins and Dale Saby of the Lions Club.
Wilkins expects around 250 people to attend the holiday feast.
“This is a tough year for the province, the town and everywhere else. We may end up with more; we don’t know for sure,” Wilkins said.
The meal will feature all of the traditional Christmas dinner dishes.
“It’s still a turkey-ham dinner, I think the only thing we cut out was the turnips, as far as the food stuff is concerned. It’s pretty much the same,” Wilkins said. “We have the same people that are supplying and the same people that are donating.”
Wilkins says people will be able to take a plate of food home with them if they want.
Saby says on the day of the dinner in the legion “It’s like a big happy family.”
