A twenty-plus old Christmas tradition in Watson keeps marching on and providing revenue for great community projects. This year, Watson’s renowned Christmas Pudding Chefs, as they have come to be known, provided a generous donation of $1,065 to the Watson Arena Board for the purchase of a replacement zamboni for the rink.

The donation was made to the Arena Board’s Judy Schmid by one of the head Christmas Pudding Chefs, Mayor Norma Weber. Norma explains the long running tradition.

“We’ve been doing this project for over twenty years, and we tallied the total; we are just under $23,000 that we have generated over those years to donate to community projects.”

Each fall, the chefs gather to cook up their Christmas pudding and its unique and rich rum sauce for sale at Christmas season events, including the annual craft show. This year, due to limited gatherings during the pandemic, the chefs enlisted the help of some generous local businesses to distribute the over 140 quarts of pudding and 90 pints of rum sauce. 

“Most of the sales are done by the committee of chefs but also by our Esso Service Station and Harvest Time Eatery in Watson.”

The group usually has the product sold out well before Christmas time, but with limited avenues for sales this year, there are still a few quarts of the pudding and sauce available through those retailers. 

Weber laughs that the recipe for the pudding and sauce are sought after but it’s a well guarded secret. There is only one path for securing that bit of knowledge.

“Come join the project,” invites Weber. “It’s amazing, and we have a lot of fun.”