Lundin reflects on 40 years of the Christmas Day Happening
RIDGWAY- A Christmas Day tradition in Ridgway came to a close this past holiday season after 40 years. The Christmas Day Happening has been a community tradition, and the face of it has been Ridgway resident Karen Lundin.
Lundin and her best friend, Lila Sprague, began the event four decades ago with the idea that no one would be alone for a Christmas Day meal in the Ridgway community and the surrounding areas.
U n f o r t u n a t e l y, Sprague passed away from a battle with cancer in 1990. After the loss of her best friend, Lundin thought the event would not continue because it was Sprague’s vision and promise to keep it thriving.
“At the time shortly after her passing, it just wasn’t in my heart to continue it,” Lundin said. “I’m so glad people stepped up to allow it to continue.”
Lundin shared that she and Sprague thought they would just have people invited to their homes for the first happening, but after hearing from over 40 people that would be interested in attending, they had to change their plans.
As a result, they had the first Christmas Day Happening in the First Lutheran Church fellowship hall, and then had to transition the event over to the West End Fire Hall due to the event’s popularity. Finally, the event found a permanent home at the North Broad Fire Hall a number of years ago.
This endeavor has not come without some major challenges, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. Even though in-person meals were not permitted, Lundin and her group of volunteers managed to make over 200 meals for home delivery in 2020.
Lundin had countless people to thank for having The Christmas Day Happening sustain for 40 years.
“If you were part of delivering the meals, serving the meals, cleanup, or decorating the fire hall and wrapping gifts, I want to give you a big thank you,” Lundin said. “It was just such a blessing to do this each year.”
Lundin wanted to give special thanks to Elk County Foods Owner Steve Cleveland for offering his help with whatever needed to be done to make the meal successful on Christmas Day. She also wanted to thank the Royal Inn for letting her order the linens for the tables for each dinner.
The longtime organizer of this event has fond memories of giving directions to those who made home deliveries.
“I always told them once they went into someone’s house to deliver a meal, they should sing a Christmas song to them because it’s for somebody special,” Lundin said. “I always prayed for everyone that made the home deliveries to come back safely.”
Lundin acknowledged that Christmas Day this year was tough for her, but she was thankful to be surrounded by family and friends for the final Christmas Day Happening, as some went without missing the event since it started.
She was proud to share that for their last year, they delivered 236 meals to the community.
Lundin was honored by Mayor Ray Imhof and the Ridgway Borough Council for her ‘selfless dedication to spreading the spirit of Christmas through the Christmas Day Happening’ for the 40 year anniversary of the event. Imhof himself has been heavily involved in preparing the meals for the event.
As for next Christmas, Lundin is not sure what her and her family will do without this Ridgway tradition, but knows the memories will always be with her going forward.
“We’ll gather in some different fashion next year, but my heart will always be at this fire hall and with the people that we delivered and served meals to,” Lundin said.
She remains unsure of the future of the event itself, but hopes that someone will take it over and make it their own, and that includes changing the name.
Lundin’s community involvement extends beyond the Christmas Day Happening, as she fought for three years to have Hometown Heroes banners in Ridgway. Due to her persistence, the Hometown Heroes banners will be displayed in Ridgway.
She shared that 202 people filled out applications for banners to be displayed on Memorial Day, and there is room for over 400 banners to be hung in town. The deadline for the application for the banners to be displayed on Memorial Day passed on January 31.
Lundin praised the hard work of John Fletcher, Post Commander of the VFW, for bringing Hometown Heroes banners to Ridgway and to honor those from the Ridgway community who have served in the armed forces.
Karen Lundin has been a beacon of light in the Ridgway community in many ways, and the entire Ridgway community is grateful for the profound impact she has made on the countless number of people each Christmas.