Christmas Day Lunch 2025 at St John’s, Islington. Thank you and an update.

A report written by the organiser, Christine Rodgers, January 2026.

The Christmas Day lunch held at St John’s School, Duncan Street on 25th December 2025 was a bigger event than last year. The same organising team was able to build on the experience of last year’s lunch and, with groups of volunteers, plan, prepare, cook and serve a roast turkey lunch with all the trimmings and a visit from Santa Claus with presents. Both guests and volunteers told us that they found it a very enjoyable occasion. Planning and preparation was made possible with the grant of £500 from Make it Happen and Islington Giving.. With this in place we were able to raise further funds from other sources and individual donations and start recruiting volunteers.

The lunch was attended by 46 guests this year. We catered for 50 with plenty for second helpings but could not be sure how many would come on the day. We contacted organisations and drop-in centres in and around Islington to inform about the lunch and told visitors to the weekly Sunday Club at St John’s crypt, Union Chapel and The Manna at St Stephen’s. Several of our guests said they had heard good accounts of last year’s lunch and signed up early. We had to close the sign up lists shortly before Christmas as it looked like we would be over subscribed. Some guests who came last year for the company returned again this year and offered a donation.

I coordinated the volunteers, in the end having to turn some away, because there were too many. Most were local, in fact five of those on Christmas Day had been pupils at St John’s Primary School years before. All the volunteers, of all ages, were excellent. They arrived on time, got on with the tasks as well as seeing other things which needed to be done. They were kind and cheerful and very good with our guests.

In all we had 38 volunteers over two days and more offered than were needed. Christmas Eve volunteers came from 10am to 12.30pm. Some peeled and prepared all the vegetables, leaving them ready for the morning, others moved tables and chairs, brought all the crockery down from storage, set up the hall, decorated the room, laid the tables and made it welcoming. The vegetables came from Chapel Market, groceries from local shops and supermarkets, and turkey crowns were ordered online from Tesco’s. Some of the presents in Santa’s sack were kindly donated by St John’s school and church parishioners, the rest we bought.

On Christmas Day volunteer chef Rebecca, who cooked last year, arrived at 8.45 and did a great job with her four helpers – three volunteers from St John’s and one from the many who responded to our appeal. Eighteen hosting and serving volunteers came at 11.45 to be ready for guests arriving from 12.15. When lunch was served the tables were almost full and the atmosphere in the room was lovely, warm and happy. Santa arrived during the meal and distributed gifts to all the guests. At the end all the food was used with a few takeaway boxes for anyone who asked.

At the end of the day volunteers worked hard to make sure everything was cleared and cleaned, crockery returned to storage, rubbish put in outside bins and tables and chairs taken back to the crypt. The chef and all the volunteers said how much they had enjoyed the day and would love to come back next year.

The grant from Make it Happen is much appreciated – it was again the foundation on which this happy event happened.

Christine Rodgers

January 2026

If you would like to volunteer or donate for Christmas 2026, please email cmarodgers@yahoo.co.uk