For local volunteer, the holiday spirit continues year round

As most of us are drawing a sigh of relief that the planning, organizing and juggling of holiday tasks is over for another year, Wayne Brown is already looking ahead to December 2024.

In fact, the retired Sheridan College business professor has Christmas on his mind pretty much all year round.

Brown is the driving force behind A Christmas Experience, a very special community event that brings smiles to the faces of families in Burlington who otherwise might not enjoy this holiday tradition. He uses his considerable organizational and networking skills to coordinate food, entertainment and gifts, all with the goal of spreading a little bit of joy.

This year, sponsors and volunteers served up A Christmas Experience in two sessions, on Dec. 20 and 21. In all, 200 people – 120 children and 80 adults – attended the festivities held at Chop Restaurant and Holiday Inn Burlington, respectively.

For Brown, it’s all about the kids.

“They all had a very nice dinner and everybody gets a gift, especially the children,” he said.  “And the only stipulation to come to these events is children. It's not an adult party.”

This was the fifth year for A Christmas Experience, which started back in 2017. In its first year, Brown approached Sandman Hotel general manager Ashley Hershon, who came on board to host a dinner at the hotel’s Chop Steakhouse and Bar. Five families who were clients at the Hope Bible Church Market attended.

The event continued through 2019; each year expanding to accommodate 10, then 20 families. After a hiatus due to the pandemic, the holiday meal returned in 2022 – again with 20 families. 

This year’s party more than doubled in size, thanks to a meeting with Jason Stoner, the GM at Holiday Inn Burlington.

“He finally said to me, 'How can the Holiday Inn get involved?'” said Brown. “So what we figured out was that we would do the dinner this year for 50 families –  25 would still be at Chop in the Sandman Hotel, and they would all be from Hope Church, and 25 other families would be  at the Holiday Inn.”

The additional venue allowed the event to expand to include clients from Halton Women's Shelter, Food for Kids and Shifra House.

As the number of families increases, so does the support from sponsors and volunteers, notes Brown. Among the many generous donors this year were RBC, which provided the turkeys; Jamie Myers of Jake’s Boathouse stepped up with the potatoes and vegetables for the dinners and Christy's Gourmet Gifts created a dessert table at each location.

The Canadian Tire on Fairview Street helped out with the gifts and Core Capital helped cover the $6,000 cost to purchase toys, while Burlington Performing Arts Centre executive director Tammy Fox made sure each mom who attended received a gift bag of cosmetics. 

A dedicated team of volunteers make sure all the gifts are purchased and wrapped. And, of course, it wouldn’t be a Christmas party without Santa and Mrs. Claus, and Shaun and Laura Power did the honours.

Brown's other community activities include arranging the bands for the Burlington Santa Claus Parade (another project that starts early in the year) and coordinating the Appleby Line Street Festival. He notes that the need for events like A Christmas Experience continues to grow.

“I couldn’t face myself if I sat back and did nothing,” he noted in this year’s appeal to sponsors. “Could you?”

The first planning meeting for the 2024 edition of A Christmas Experience is scheduled for next week.