On a balmy evening in December around 40 guests – all involved in Hambledon Village Shop in some way – gathered at the village hall wearing Christmas decorations and looking very festive. It was lovely to get together to meet old friends, make some new ones and to thank everyone for contributing so much to the shop.
The team who’d organised the village party the previous weekend had beautifully decorated the village hall with ivy garlands and fairy lights all round the walls and an enormous Christmas tree twinkling away in the corner. In true Blue Peter fashion, the table decorations were made from recycled bottles and jam jars with a little hand-decorated ‘thank you’ token and raffle ticket on each place setting.
The evening kicked off with drinks and chat before tucking into beef and vegetable Malaysian-style curries with rice and breads made by our Chef du Jour, Jon Petersen, followed by chocolate torte and lemon cheesecake desserts from Cook (worth noting that if you’re running a community event they offer a discount of 30%, click here to find out more). Thanks go to the commis chefs who helped chop all that veg!
The more people that get involved, the less everyone has to do. We are particularly short of volunteers on weekday afternoons from 3pm to 5pm and Saturday mornings.