Co-Coordinator of Soup's On in Steinbach says their annual Christmas dinner is one of her favourite nights of the year.

Joy Neufeld says Soup's On served approximately 125 people at their Christmas dinner in the basement of the Grace Mennonite Church this past week. She says they try to make the evening special for all of their guests by making it feel like a catered meal and providing entertainment.

“It is one of my favourite evenings of the entire year. I won't deny it is stressful and major work, but it is fun and it is just a really good time. Tuesday evening we had our Christmas dinner and we served 125 people and we had some live music, and we have just a full course meal thanks to all of the generous donations.”

Neufeld says the volunteers for the Christmas Dinner are always the Soup's On board and their families. She notes for that one evening the Soup's On Family and the board family come together for fun, hugs, and laughter. She notes it can be a humbling experience.

“For some folks they bring some other family members and this is their family Christmas dinner. This is the time that they will spend together as a family and sit around a table and have a dinner and it is at Soup's On. It is humbling that they let me into that part of their lives. It is their gift to me.”

Neufeld says for some people this time of year is very hard.

“For some Christmas is hard because is a time for families and they haven't any families, at least none that they have contact with. There are always some very emotional times and we had some of that on Tuesday.”

Neufeld notes most of the guests that come in are very grateful for the opportunity to have a good Christmas dinner. She says it is important that they all know that the entire community is responsible for providing the dinner and the community has their back this Christmas.