40 guests were welcomed to Marlborough Town Hall for the 22nd Christmas Day lunch and a further 26 people, who were unable to leave their homes, received a home delivery. Guests were full of praise and appreciation for the organisers, sponsors and volunteers who had created such a wonderful lunch and afternoon for them.
Masterminding the whole day were Vicki and Claire Ellis, supported by their family including nan, Joy, as well as a huge number of volunteers and delivery drivers. Vicki said, “The lunch was founded by my grandparents in 2002 and was passed over to me and my mum in 2015. I’ve been a part of it since it started and can’t remember a Christmas without it. The Marlborough Christmas Lunch is a tradition I hope to keep in our family as long as we can and hopefully one day will have the opportunity to pass on to my own family. We don’t do it because we feel we have to we do it but because we genuinely love spending our day with everyone. We are an extremely close family and for Christmas we like to make sure all our guests feel like they are part of it too. This year I overheard one of our guests saying, “Time goes so quickly when you aren’t on your own,” which really made me feel quite tearful and reminded me exactly how important the lunch is.”
Vicki would like to thank all the sponsors for making the Christmas lunch possible:
Sumbler’s Butchers for donating the meat, Tesco for donating fruit and vegetables, SBC Events and Kym-Marie Cleasby (Mayor of Marlborough) for use of the kitchen facilities, Marlborough Town Council for use of the Town Hall, Marlborough College for use of one of their minibuses, Kennet Community Transport for use of minibus and drivers, Claridge Funeral Service Ltd for storage of equipment, Bread & Butter for new logo and design work, Julie’s Chop It Like It’s Hot for homemade mince pies, Moo2Yoo for the milk. And also a huge thank you to everyone who donated raffle prizes, gifts and for offering kind words of wisdom and support. A special mention goes to Gale who gave up her morning to wrap 65 gifts and Liz for ironing all the table cloths.
Guests spoke to Marlborough.news about how much they were enjoying the day. Peter commented, “I can’t believe that people will give up their time on Christmas Day. It’s excellent and every year the decorations get better.” Reg and Sue, who were coming along for the fourth time, said, “It’s just excellent we feel very well looked after.” They lay on transport and give you a goody bag to go home with.” Valerie, showed her appreciation by singing her own version of “We’ll meet again”.
Guests spoke to Marlborough.news about how much they were enjoying the day. Peter commented, “I can’t believe that people will give up their time on Christmas Day. It’s excellent and every year the decorations get better.”
Reg and Sue, who were coming along for the fourth time, said, “It’s just excellent we feel very well looked after. They lay on transport and give you a goody bag to go home with.”
Valerie showed her appreciation by singing her own version of We’ll meet again. She wrote her own lyrics which really summed up what everyone was feeling:
We’d be at home, probably all on our own
If it wasn’t for this lunch on Christmas Day
All thanks to you, we can keep smiling through
As the 12 months will slowly pass away
And can we please say hello to the folks we all know
Who put on this great do with the lunch and fun
We can go home full and happy too.
So keep it all up for we’d be out of luck
If we didn’t have you in ‘25
So we’ll meet again so thank God we know when
So good luck and thank you and goodbye