Eparchy of Ss. Cyril and Methodius: Christmas Bake Sale and Bazaar

We know Christmas is just around the corner when the local churches are starting to advertise their Christmas Bazaars and Bake Sales. Our own Cathedral of the Nativity of the Mother of God on Shaw St in Toronto is one of those churches. A couple of months before the sale, orders started pouring in for holubky and pirohy. Then a month before the actual event, members of the Ladies’ Guild gathered in the church hall organizing and preparing. First they made a couple of thousand pirohy with potato and cheese, cottage cheese and kapusta. When those were all packaged, they found out that they received more orders, so the following week they made another batch of pirohy and then they started on holubky. As it turned out, they had to make holubky three times! They make them so good that people place orders more than once! Their latest session for making holubky was the Saturday before the bake sale and at that time, we made 96 dozens of them. I am not sure about the rest of the ladies however the night before the bake sale I continued making holubky in my dreams!

The day of the sale, ladies started coming in early in the morning to package all the baking that was brought to the hall. Just looking at the rozky, tortes, cakes, rolls, rum balls, knedle, special cheese spreads, bobalky, fudge squares, bacon, cookies, pirohy & holubky made all of us hungry. It was nice to see more people in the church than we normally have – Fr. Andrew had only one liturgy. Everyone came to the hall and all the pirohy and almost all the baking was gone before lunch was served. For lunch, the ladies prepared a very tasty meatloaf, stuffed peppers, potatoes and salad. Coffee and cake followed for deserts. Some of our more talented ladies knitted slippers, made interesting “bunnies” with tea towels and wash cloths, crocheted some beautiful afghans, made bibs for people in nursing homes or hospitals, and other items suitable for stocking stuffers. Tickets were sold for a raffle of beautiful and useful items and many people went home with baked goods and also with items they won in the raffle. Once the raffle was done, some late comers were still able to buy cabbage rolls. This was great because at many of our bake sales, if you are not there early, you get nothing – it’s all sold out. Not this year, we had enough for all who were there.

One thing I noticed at this year’s bake sale and bazaar is that we also had some young people and families who attended and lent a hand in the kitchen – especially washing and drying dishes. Your help was truly appreciated. It was great to see you there and even greater to have you participate. In this day and age, when many churches are closing, it is more important than ever to encourage our young families to attend and welcome their help – they are our future. Thank you all for coming and supporting our Cathedral and we hope you had as much fun buying the items as we had making them for you.

A very special thank you goes to the Ladies’ Guild members and some of our “kurators” who came out to help before, during and after the Bake Sale. We all know that the hall doesn’t clean itself, the tables do not get set up and put away by themselves and the groceries do not walk in and place themselves on the kitchen counter by themselves. Behind all those actions stands either a member of the Ladies’ Guild who is willing to drive from store to store to get the best price for the ingredients or another member of the church who is willing to help out. Thank you for making sure that our sales are always successful. Many thanks also go to Fr. Andrew who faithfully serves us every Friday and Sunday and any other time his services are required.