Robin and Vince Lambert suited up to provide some on-site holiday entertainment for guests who took advantage of a Christmas-themed drive-up food box giveaway, held Tuesday at First Presbyterian Church of Cullman.

When they did it at Thanksgiving, it was an under-the-radar thing. Word hadn’t really gotten around, and at the end of the day, there were even a few extra boxed-up boxes of food, prepared for those in need, left over.

That wasn’t the case on Tuesday, though. People had heard that First Presbyterian Church of Cullman would be giving Christmas food boxes away at a drive-up event at the church’s east Cullman campus — and they made sure to get there early.

Only 15 minutes after its 2 p.m. start time, First Presbyterian had handed out all 30 of its free, Christmas-themed meal boxes, packed by church members as a way to spread a little Christmas cheer for locals who could use a helping hand. Intended as a socially-distanced way to engage the community at Christmastime, the idea got its trial run over Thanksgiving, sprung from one member’s suggestion during a church business meeting.

“We were just having our meeting at the church, and we just kind of brainstormed this idea. It really came together all of a sudden,” said elder and youth director Nathan Woodard, who came up with the idea for a drive-up food giveaway. “We’d started it at Thanksgiving, but we didn’t really market that one. For this one, though, the people knew about it, and they were ready and waiting.”

Elder Gloria Greening said cars began lining up near the outdoor giveaway point nearly a full hour before the 2 p.m. start time, reflecting an often unseen need in the Cullman community for life’s necessities — especially in a year that’s left many with less.

“People are hungry,” she said. “Once Nathan had suggested this, we all said, ‘That’s a great idea!’ — and so we started taking up money to see how far that could get us. We got the boxes together, and let the community know about it, and people were already lining up around 1 p.m. It’s been something.”

Packed into each box is enough food for a Christmas dinner and then some, including a 4 lb ham, some onions for seasoning, a pound of dried beans, canned yams, a couple of pounds of flour, some boxes of mac & cheese, a box of cereal, cookies for the kids, and candy canes. “We wanted to be sure there was something in there that the kids would like, too,” explained Greening.

While the boxes went fast, church members are already mulling the possibility of staging a second food box giveaway — perhaps sometime in early January — since Tuesday’s drive-up was so successful. To stay looped in on how it all turns out, follow the church on Facebook @cullmanfpc.