Over 170 people attended the Kiwanis Club of Paris-Brant’s seventh annual Breakfast with Santa at St. James Anglican Church on Saturday, November 23, 2024.
Sheila Moore, the local Kiwanis club president, said that the event first started back in 2017 after herself and other club members noticed that there was no other Breakfast with Santa event going on in Paris at the time.
Having known Santa Claus for several years, Moore asked him if he was willing to carve out a few hours away from his busy schedule to come and have breakfast with some of the local families in the area.
“Santa just loved coming down from the North Pole for the event so much that he’s joined us every year since then,” she said.
While the event originally started out with just one seating session, it has since grown in popularity and the club began offering two sessions in 2021.
“We now always have two seatings, so the first one was at 8:30 a.m. and we had 79 people attend this year and then once everyone left, we had to reset and clean everything to get ready for the 96 people attending our second seating at 10:30 a.m.” said Moore.
While Santa mingled with the youngsters and posed for photos, volunteers like Marisa Moore and Hanna Czartoryska, spent the morning serving up hot pancakes and sausages to the local families.
The club president said that while there’s nothing better than seeing the youngsters light up when they get to interact with Jolly Old St. Nick, one of her favorite things about the annual breakfast is seeing how many people have made the event a holiday tradition.
“We’re seeing a lot of familiar faces this year which is always nice and even the lady who handles our ticket sales said she saw many familiar names pop up,” said Moore. “We have one family that’s been here for the last three years and we have a couple of ladies who belong to the Kiwanis Club of Kitchener-Waterloo, and this is actually the fifth time they’ve driven here to come and have breakfast with us, so it’s just great to see everyone again.”
Moore said that because the club is a not-for-profit organization, they couldn’t put the event on without the help of their dedicated sponsors and volunteers.
“We have a wonderful committee of volunteers who help us out in various ways like setting up the night before and then of course, throughout the event,” she said. “We’re also very grateful for our wonderful sponsors, in particular, No Frills, Sobeys and Tim Hortons, which are the three that are helping to provide the food. Without them we wouldn’t be able to keep our prices down the way that we do.”
Paris resident, Uyen Brockway, said it was her first time attending the Breakfast with Santa event and that she would be happy to attend again next year.
“I loved it, it really had that nice small town community feel, you know?” said Brockway. “Having moved here from Milton, it almost felt like one of those things you see in movies or shows, but that you don’t necessarily get to experience in a bigger city. It kind of just had that Hallmark charm where the community gets together for the big holiday breakfast, it was great.”
Kimberly De Jong’s reporting is funded by the Canadian government through its Local Journalism Initiative.The funding allows her to report rural and agricultural stories from Blandford-Blenheim and Brant County. Reach her at kimberly.dejong@brantbeacon.ca.
