The Oamaru ''Big Feed'' lived up to its name, with Tony Dudley, wife Jill, children Ashleigh and Caleb and 20 volunteers in the kitchen turning out a full Christmas dinner menu from drinks and starters through a huge main course, dessert with the traditional pavlova and Christmas pudding to coffee and tea served with cherries, chocolate and truffles.
It was the third ''Big Feed'' free Christmas dinner hosted by the Orwell Street Chapel pastor and his family.
And each year it gets even bigger - the first in 2008 had 35 guests.
Preparations for the dinner started in the middle of last week with volunteers from all sectors of the community.
This year's dinner was enhanced by presents under the Christmas tree - enough for everyone there.
They were donated from an appeal by Oamaru radio station Classic Hits and handed out just before people sat down to dinner at about midday.
Among the volunteers were Neil and Rose Sanderson and their daughters Ella (11) and Georgia (8), who wanted to contribute something to the community event.
Alexandra
The 10th anniversary Alexandra community Christmas dinner catered for 126 guests, with up to 20 volunteers involved from 8.30am yesterday to about 5pm.
The event at the Alexandra Bowling Club was started by Alexandra couple Jeanette and the late Alistair Miller.
Mrs Miller handed over co-ordination of this year's dinner to Elma McGregor, but was present yesterday as hostess.
Guests were served a three-course meal, starting with shrimp or fruit cocktails through to traditional desserts, ending with nibbles and drinks.
Run by the Alexandra Community Christmas Dinner Charitable Trust, it caters for people in the community who may be alone at Christmas, including many people who have come into Central Otago to work on orchards.
This year there were guests from Vanuata, Canada and Chile, some of whom provided entertainment.
Dunedin
About 250 people had lunch at the Church of Christ Community Christmas Dinner on St Andrew St in Dunedin.
Church of Christ minister Dave Brown, Dunedin firefighters and volunteers from the community served meals of roast lamb, mint sauce, ham and vegetables, and deserts of plum pudding, pavlova, custard and jelly.
Mr Brown said it was the 22nd Christmas dinner the church had held, and was only possible because of food donations from the community and help from Marlow Pies and Little India.
Queenstown
The Queenstown Sociable Club had an ''orphan's luncheon'' yesterday at the Skyline Gondola for those who wanted to share Christmas Day, while a casual drop-in community barbecue organised by the Salvation Army near the boathouse between 5 and 7pm had catered for up to 250 people.
• Community dinners at Wanaka and Milton were not held this year because of a lack of volunteers.
