SHERBROOKE — Organizers of Sherbrooke Village Old-Fashioned Christmas have a called a halt to the popular holiday tradition this year, blaming “shifting community demographics and volunteer burnout” for the decision.
According to a statement issued last week by Wendy Shelly, chair of the volunteer board of directors of Sherbrooke Village Old-Fashioned Christmas Association (SVOFCA), and York Lethbridge, executive director of Sherbrooke Village, “SVOFCA has deemed it necessary to cancel the 2024 edition of the Old-Fashioned Christmas event. Shifting community demographics and volunteer burnout have contributed to this difficult decision.”
At the same time, the statement continued, “Sherbrooke Village recognizes the community importance of the Old-Fashioned Christmas event to residents, families, businesses and visitors to the District of St. Mary’s. After taking a pause this year for thoughtful reflection on the best path forward, Sherbrooke Village currently anticipates launching a renewed holiday event on the [Sherbrooke Village] Museum site next year.”
In an interview with The Journal on Sept. 16, Shelly explained that the “hard stop” to the 28-year, annual festival was unavoidable. “Over the past two years, [there’s] been [a] significant turnover of the board,” she said, noting that the number of board members has shrunk from 11 to five since January.
“It’s life in general. [People] have to work long hours, and coming to a board meeting after work sometimes wasn’t something they were able to do. They had other pressing things and ... if they couldn’t give it 100 per cent ... they would want to leave the board.”
Moreover, she said, many board members and other OFC community volunteers – who tend to be older – felt “overwhelmed and under-resourced” due to the lack of younger, able-bodied recruits for tasks like outdoor decorating and dismantling.
Sherbrooke Village Old-Fashioned Christmas has been a fixture on the community holiday festival circuit along the Eastern Shore since 1996, pausing only twice before – in 2008 and 2014 – to re-organize. Typically, more than 100 volunteers contribute thousands of hours preparing for the celebration, which attracts as many as 10,000 visitors a year.
But, attracting a sufficient number of volunteer board members and workers has been a growing problem over the years, prompting former event chair, Dana O’Connell, to comment before council for the Municipality of the District of St. Mary’s in 2022: “I don’t want to sound like the Grinch, but Old-Fashioned Christmas could be in jeopardy of not happening.”
According to Shelly last week, “We approached the Sherbrooke Village management in late August with our dilemma, and we discussed ways to push the event forward. Ultimately, my board decided we could not ask the museum to take this event on so late in the game.”
Shelly insisted that both SVOFCA and the museum want to see the event continue, but, she said, “We want to look at what components can be carried forward sustainably, knowing that the context [volunteer availability] has changed significantly over the last three decades... Prioritizing a quality experience is the commitment our association [has made] and the event standards need to be proactive. [That’s] the commitment to our community.”
Lethbridge agreed. “The museum has been host to a number of other community activities, but Old-Fashioned Christmas has been, by far, the largest and most intensive community event,” he told The Journal, also on Sept. 16. “We’re trying to provide as much support to the SVOFCA as possible and we’re looking at planning with the association.”
Added Shelly: “It’s clear that this decision to cancel the event disappointed many... I think the fact that we can sit down with the Village and have time to reflect and come back motivated is, to me, exciting... We want to make it thrive... I’m really looking forward to 2025.”
For this year, not all appears to be lost. According to Neil Black, committee member of the St. Mary’s District Lions Club, “We’ll be doing a Victorian Tea and we’ll be holding our annual Christmas Prize Bingo.”
