About 160 people sat down to Christmas Day community dinners in Oamaru and Waimate yesterday.
The Oamaru dinner is the eighth provided by the Orwell St Chapel and it was the second time the Waimate District Co-operating Venture had held its dinner.
Both benefited from donations of money and food from their respective communities.
For the first time the 10 Oamaru volunteers had professional help from the Brydone Hotel, whose staff cooked and carved the turkey, ham and lamb.
Diners had a big choice of salads, new potatoes, pavlova with cherries and strawberries, tea and coffee, Christmas cake and mince pies.
Waimate co-ordinator Jan Rooke said about 20 volunteers helped prepare lamb, turkey, ham, new potatoes, peas and salads.
Christmas pudding, pavlova and fruit salad was followed by non-alcoholic drinks and Christmas cake.
