For Hotel Workers, a Time to Create Christmas Magic

Witham Family Charitable Christmas brings joy, kindness, and toys to families in Bar Harbor and beyond

Dec 10, 2023

BAR HARBOR—Christmas tunes crank out of speakers while families gather on the asphalt parking lot outside the Atlantic Oceanside Hotel and Event Center Saturday morning. Twinkling white lights hung from rafters greet visitors at one of Bar Harbor’s most joyous traditions: Witham Family Charitable Christmas. It was the ninth time this free event has happened. It seems to get bigger and more joyous every year. And more magical.

This year, according to Bar Harbor Inn General Manager Jeremy Dougherty there were about 650 who attended, up from approximately 420 last year.

The community knows magic when it sees it. And there was so much to see. Through a tunnel of lights, Elsa and Olaf greeted children and their adults. Back out in the parking lot, Scrooge gave fist bumps or hugs. Downstairs was the line for photos with Mr. and Mrs. Claus. Another room became a giant cookie decorating station.

As Melissa Hepburn said on Facebook, “Best Christmas party of the year! You won't be disappointed.”

It’s a party, but it’s also a sort of magic—the kind that happens when people come together for no other reason than doing good.

“I do believe in an everyday sort of magic — the inexplicable connectedness we sometimes experience with places, people, works of art and the like; the eerie appropriateness of moments of synchronicity; the whispered voice, the hidden presence, when we think we’re alone,” Charles de Lint once wrote.

Saturday’s event proved that magic doesn’t just happen when people are alone. It can happen when community members get together to celebrate, to hope, and to give.

Food booths, constructed just for the event, featured donuts and hot chocolate. Reindeer waited outside for Santa’s cue. An old-fashioned sleigh was laid out for photo ops.

“Rocking Around the Christmas Tree” echoed underneath giggles and squeals.

“We are continually looking at ways to give back to the community, and at some point, someone planted a seed that this would be a great thing for the kids in the area, and we just simply ran with it from there. It has succeeded beyond my wildest dreams in terms of the joy it has brought to so many of all ages, including our own staff,” said David C. Witham, CEO of Witham Family Hotels.

Witham called Human Resources Director Isabelle Legault the backbone of the celebration. Legault has been involved since the event first began.

“I remember attending the first celebration, just having started with the company, volunteering with my husband at the ‘Letters to Santa’ table,” she said. “Back then, the event was much smaller, and we were utilizing only some of the inside upstairs space of the event center at the Atlantic Oceanside. Now that I have young children of my own, the event is even more special.”

The celebration means a lot to Witham just like it means a lot to the community. Witham said there were a lot of reasons why he holds the event close to his heart.

“From the sense of community it inspires, the opportunity it affords us to help Seacoast Mission and H.O.M.E., and the joy it brings to all ages. As a company, we are fortunate to be able to support many local organizations, but there is truly something special about offering a tangible experience rather than simply writing a check,” he said.

“But,” he continued, “if I had to state what means the most to me, it is to see the joy and awe in the faces of those kids who otherwise would not get to experience the magic of Christmas due to their family’s financial situation. Of course, I want to see everyone from every demographic come together and truly enjoy themselves, but knowing we can give a truly special experience to those kids who otherwise may not get an opportunity like this is what drives me personally. I want to be there for these kids as long as I can.”

A mix of food, crafts, volunteerism, and giving symbolized part of the holiday for the families of Bar Harbor, an enchanted few hours of cookies and fun. It has become a touchstone for the families who have come back year after year. The planning for the event, according to Witham, begins in earnest in June.

All that planning equates to big celebrations and small moments of joy as kids interact with parents and friends, adults help with crafts, and children interact with the volunteers, elves, Santa, Mrs. Claus, and characters from classic books, cartoons, and films.

“Is that Santa?” one mom crooned into her little girl’s ear as they stood in line, waiting for their turn to meet him.

“It is,” the little girl whispered back reverently. “It is.”

Almost continually during the course of the event, Witham studied the faces of the younger children as they first arrived.

“I take heart when I spot a kid who just stops and simply looks out in complete wonder. You can see that something inside of them feels the magic. These moments in life seem to be harder to come by, but when they do it connects us all,” he said.

W.B. Yeats wrote, “The world is full of magic things, patiently waiting for our senses to grow sharper.”

The event is a place where magic happens every year in big and little ways.

“There was a year in particular when two brothers came as their mother worked for us at the time. Both boys were wheelchair bound and beaming with smiles. The older brother shared with me that he had saved up his allowance to buy a present to donate to the Seacoast Mission toy drive we were holding,” Witham continued. “His father wheeled him up to the collection van as he proudly placed the toy he bought inside. For me personally, it was a powerful experience to have a young boy with such a challenging day-to-day life humble you with his genuine kindness towards another child he saw as less fortunate than himself. It made me want to be a better person.”

Those moments continued Saturday as child after child, and adult after adult had that look Witham spoke of, taking in the lights, the reindeer, the wooden market stalls.

“This. Is. Amazing,” one man said, standing inside by the exit door, taking in all the craft stations on the main level as well as a massive holiday book replica. “And . . . Santa is downstairs.”

“There’s more downstairs?” the guy next to him said.

The man’s eyes grew big. “There’s actually even more downstairs.”

Downstairs, waiting in line, young children were held in their mother’s arms, laughing at red ornaments dangling from the ceiling. A baby sat on Santa’s lap for the very first time. A bigger boy stood in between Mr. and Mrs. Claus, smiling broadly.

Nora Roberts wrote, “Magic exists. Who can doubt it, when there are rainbows and wildflowers, the music of the wind and the silence of the stars?”

Magic, however, can be in humans, too, in the moments of connection, of kindness.

“This is going to make me cry,” someone whispered while the Santa photos were happening.

The man next to her balked. “What?”

“In a good way.” She sniffed.

A good way.

A way that supports each other and supports the community.

That’s the way Witham wanted it to be.

“My parents, as well as my siblings and I, had a very humble upbringing in your typical blue collar mill town. We all learned the importance of community and the need to support each other,” he said. “Over the past 60+ years our family business has been blessed with a degree of success which affords us the opportunity to give back. My siblings and I are committed to continuing and growing the philanthropic ways our father started here in Bar Harbor. As our company provides shelter and food to visitors of Bar Harbor, our main philanthropic focus is helping those organizations who provide shelter to those in need along with other groups who support folks with food insecurities.”

“Children see magic because they look for it,” Christopher Moore once wrote. The thing is that at an event like this, adults can look for it, too.

According to the Witham Family Hotels Charitable Christmas Facebook page, “We do ask, if you are able, that you bring a new, unwrapped toy to donate to Maine Seacoast Mission or a gently used warm winter coat for H.O.M.E. Inc.”

According to Dougherty, presents for local children are brought to Maine Seacoast Mission and dispersed to local charities so that kids can have presents for Christmas. There’s no official count yet about how many toys and coats that were collected, but Legault said it was well over 150 each.

Planning for the event begins in June and it takes about 80 volunteers to pull off the celebration. Those volunteers were Witham Family Hotels employees and family members. Many worked on the event all week and braved the cold temperatures between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. Saturday.

“The Charitable Christmas Celebration is a work of love and requires a huge team effort! We could not make it happen without Lew Lynk (Bumble), Briana Clark (Cindy Lou Who), and Emily DeGeorge (creator of the huge book display, along with Mike DeGeorge), who dedicate so much time and passion into making this day special for all,” Legault said. “There are so many wonderful employees who pour their heart into the preparation. We are also so thankful for David, giving us creative freedom and allowing us to make it bigger and better each year. Sometimes, more is more, especially when it comes to Christmas magic!”

ABOUT WITHAM FAMILY HOTELS CHARITABLE FUND

Witham Family Hotels Charitable Fund was established in 2017 to carry on the philanthropic legacy of hotelier David J. Witham. The Fund is dedicated to supporting local and regional organizations who provide valuable charitable services to our community. Monetary support of the Fund is provided by Witham Family Hotels, a Maine hospitality company based in the Acadia National Park area.