Thank you, Asheboro (and beyond!)
For sharing the joy of Christmas
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Every December 25 since 2015, our Asheboro, North Carolina community comes together to spread the magic of Christmas. THE HEART OF CHRISTMAS offers a free Christmas Day dinner and party and merry companionship for seniors alone for the holidays. Guests include seniors without family nearby, empty nesters, and people who have suffered a loss and anticipate having trouble getting through the holidays. No one has to be alone on the most wonderful day of the year. |
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FOR OUR DINNER GUESTS:
Magnolia 23 provides a sumptuous dinner of ham and turkey and dressing and more, with sumptuous, savory loaves of bread from The Table, and near-decadently delicious brownies from Nannie Mae’s ... While volunteers provide yummy side dishes in abbondonza, along with a fantasyland of desserts. All accompanied by carol singing, bingo games, line dancing, a visit from Elvis, karaoke with WZOO’s Busta Brown, and Mr. & Mrs. Santa Claus delivering goody bags. Volunteers this year included children who wanted to help make Christmas merrier for seniors, and they were the perfect addition to our Grand Finale singing of "Silent Night" and "We Wish You a Merry Christmas," led by Chorale Director Rick Morgan. Thanks to a veritable army of volunteers and sponsors and generous donors from North Carolina to New York, a jolly time was had by all! |
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FOR OUR FIRST RESPONDERS AND FRONTLINERS:
In the pandemic year of 2020, we were mighty blue about not being able to spread Christmas cheer with our traditional sit-down dinner for seniors ... when on Christmas Eve there came a donation with an inspired suggestion from a MUCH-beloved anonymous Kris Kringle: that we help out Asheboro restaurants hardest-hit by COVID, by purchasing gift certificates and presenting them with gratitude to our local first responders and frontline workers who would be working on Christmas Day. We are blessed to continue with a variation on that wonderful plan! The donations of generous Kris Kringles have enabled us to purchase gift certificates from Magnolia 23 and The Table which Mr. & Mrs. Santa Claus merrily deliver on Christmas Eve, with mega-thanks and jolly thoughts, to our courageous colleagues at Asheboro Fire Department, Asheboro Police Department, Ash-Rand Rescue Squad & EMS, Randolph County Emergency Medical Services, Randolph County Sheriff’s Office, and Randolph Health Emergency Room. |
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For more information, email Peggy Kilburn at TheHeartOfChristmasDinner@gmail.com
or text Peggy at 516-302-7587
[The DONATE button below accepts donations by credit card or PayPal]
Donations may also be mailed to:
The Heart of Christmas, P.O. Box 4475, Asheboro, NC 27203
And so, as Tiny Tim observed: "God bless us, every one!"
or text Peggy at 516-302-7587
[The DONATE button below accepts donations by credit card or PayPal]
Donations may also be mailed to:
The Heart of Christmas, P.O. Box 4475, Asheboro, NC 27203
And so, as Tiny Tim observed: "God bless us, every one!"
Merry moments from previous Heart of Christmas Dinners:
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SPECIAL THANKS to our ever-far-reaching community churches and businesses who have supported this joyous event
(click on any name to learn more about these good folk): Asheboro Courier-Tribune Asheboro Florist AVS Catering & Banquet Center Belles & Beaus Blake's Half-Baked Sandwiches Brewskie's Brightside Gallery Burge Flower Shop Carter's Family Pharmacy Catering by Johnny Covington & Stewart Gatlin Central Bakery Central United Methodist Church Chili's Chriscoe & Associates Christians United Outreach Center (CUOC) Warren Coble & Associates Episcopal Church of the Good Shepherd First Baptist Church First Christian Church of Ramseur First Presbyterian Church First United Methodist Church The Flying Pig Friends of the Randolph Public Library Hamilton's Steakhouse Herb-N-Garden Hop's Bar-B-Que Liberty Advisors Magnolia 23 Mistletoe Meadows Mike's Chicago Dog (and more!) Modern Woodmen of America Nannie Mae's Cafe Our State Magazine Party Rentals by Lisa PIP Printing The Preppy Possum Project Voice (Chattanooga, Tennessee) The Randolph Hub Randolph Rhinestones Randolph Senior Adults Association Retro Christmas Card Company Saint Joseph's Catholic Church Saint Joseph Columbiettes Charter 10891 Salt Box on Salisbury Schmidt's Candy (Queens, New York) Steen Family Produce Sunset Avenue Church of God The Table Farmhouse Bakery Taco Loco Cantina WITI Professional Association (Los Angeles, California) WKXR WZOO |
How THE HEART OF CHRISTMAS DINNER Got Started
It’s my privilege … and frankly my delight :-) … to organize this event, inspired by my much-beloved husband Howard Kilburn who died unexpectedly in 2014. Howard loved Christmas more than anyone I’ve ever known. The original Ralphie Parker, that man found joy in every imaginable aspect and instant of the season, and never saw a Christmas decoration he thought was tacky. It was all pure magic to him. And it troubled him deeply that people in need of companionship were deprived of it on the very day they need it most. Senior centers, churches, civic groups all do a marvelous job of hosting dinners and celebrations during the Christmas season … but on Christmas Day itself, everything is locked up tight and these people are left alone on the most wonderful day of the year. It took a while, but it finally dawned on me that I was in a position to do something about that. So, in 2015 – THE HEART OF CHRISTMAS was launched, with the goal of offering a free Christmas Day dinner to seniors alone for the holidays. And It was magic. It seemed everyone I spoke to about this idea broke out in a big smile and jumped right on the bandwagon:
Frank Capra would have made this into a movie. Our dinner guests include seniors, empty nesters, stranded college students, anyone without family nearby, and people who had suffered a loss and anticipated having trouble getting through the holidays. [I myself was in 3 of those categories.] Thanks to Howard's inspiration, The Heart of Christmas Dinner is now an annual event here in Asheboro, North Carolina. Please help us spread the good word! Strongly recommend you believe in the Magic of Christmas. It's real. ;-) Peggy George Kilburn 
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