Merry Christmas! The month of December at Mission OLA was been filled with so many preparations and special events to help our neighbors have a beautiful celebration of Christmas and hopefully enter more deeply into the true meaning of the season. Thanks to the generosity of so many supporters and volunteers, we estimate that this year we distributed over 7000 individual Christmas gifts to over 3000 individual people over the course of SIX different neighborhood Christmas celebrations! Please keep scrolling to enjoy some highlights of Christmas 2023:
Donations and Preparing Christmas Gifts
In the first two weeks of December, toys and Christmas gifts of all kinds came pouring in from parishes, schools, parish groups, and other organizations. All of the gifts were received and taken to the second floor of the Outreach Center (temporarily transformed into the “North Pole”), where all of the gifts were separated by age, gender, type, etc. Then over the course of the a few weeks, hundreds of volunteers filtered through to help us with toy sorting and packing Christmas gift bags that are late given to parents to take home and wrap for their children.
Seniors’ Program Culinary Kids Christmas Party
In early December, we had our 9th annual Culinary Kids Christmas Party for our Seniors Program. This year featured a delicious 5-star meal prepared by gourmet Chef Stephen Henry, Chef Courtney, our very own Sr. Alicia, and a team of high school students from Ombudmunson who are learning about the culinary arts. Our Mundelein Seminary Propaedeutic Year seminarians helped to serve the meal. Lovely Christmas music was provided by the Taft High School choir and orchestra, and special guests including Mr. T and retired Chicago athletes came to greet and take pictures with our seniors. All the seniors also left with a beautiful gift bag filled with goodies from the generous event sponsors. We are so grateful to Comptroller Susana Mendoza and her office for partnering with us to offer this beloved Christmas tradition for our seniors!
Christmas Prayer Service and Lunch
Our next Christmas event was a beautiful prayer service and lunch for about 300 of our neighbors. A volunteer choir sang traditional hymns while the neighbors arrived and had the opportunity to enjoy a time of quiet and peace in the beautifully decorated upper church. Bishop Bob then led everyone in a prayer service reflecting on the gift that the birth of Jesus, the Prince of Peace, is to all of us. Then, as our neighbors processed downstairs for lunch in the lower church dining hall, everyone had a chance to pass by the creche, say a prayer, and take a family picture. Once downstairs, everyone enjoyed a delicious home-cooked meal of hearty beef stew, Christmas cookies, and hot apple pie. On their way out, all the kids had a chance to visit with Santa and families had another opportunity to take a family picture. Finally, each family received the gift of a brand new angel tree-topper to use in their homes.
Christmas Gift Distribution
The following weekend was the day of the big Christmas gift distribution! For this event, families had pre-registered and shared with us the ages and genders of everyone in their households in need of gifts. Having these counts in advance allowed us to pre-pack the correct number of appropriate gift bags, so that when the families arrive on the day of the distribution, all of the bags are already assembled and ready to go. Parents can then bring all the gifts home and wrap them for their children to open at Christmas. This year, we heard our neighbors’ deep gratitude and reports that their children loved the gifts for weeks after the event!
TWO Christmas Pantries
In recent years we have always had special Christmas food and a very generous Santa at the Tuesday Food Pantry closest to Christmas, but this year we had such an increase in pantry numbers that we decided to split the “Christmas Pantry” into the two closest pantries to Christmas so that as many people as possible would have a chance to get what they needed to celebrate Christmas with their families. Both pantries featured very high quality ham, special order pies from Roeser’s Bakery, stockings for all the kids present, and extra family Christmas gift like a sports ball or board game… in addition to the normal supply of weekly groceries! In total, we served 1,642 families at those two pantries.
Toys-4-Tots Vicariate III Christmas Party
Our final neighborhood Christmas party for our neighbors was in partnership with our good friends at Toys-4-Tots. This party served about 300 individuals mostly from the poorer parishes throughout Vicariate III (the region of the Archdiocese of Chicago that Bishop Bob oversees) and from a few neighborhood Protestant churches. This party featured a hot dog lunch, magician show for families to enjoy while waiting their turn to see Santa, and an elaborate Santa’s toy shop complete with everyone’s favorite Christmas characters and a team of hard-working elves to pack bags for all the children as they visited and took a family picture with Santa.
Epiphany Volunteer and Benefactor Thank You Mass and Brunch
Finally, we closed out the Christmas season with our annual Epiphany Volunteer and Benefactor Thank You Mass and Brunch. This event is all about celebrating and saying thank you to the thousands of benefactors and volunteers who help to make our life and work possible. This year we had about 250 guests join us for a beautiful Epiphany Mass celebrated by Bishop Bob and with music provided by Sr. Kate’s very talented family and a few of the Franciscans. After Mass, we enjoyed a delicious brunch and time for conversation and catching up with old friends. It was truly a beautiful way to close out our official Christmas events for the season!
