Phil Toevs, a cook at Biggs BBQ, checks on two turkeys that will help to make up the approximately 800 pounds of meat the restaurant plans to prepare in its smokers for the First United Methodist Church's Christmas dinner.

On Christmas Eve, when many families are cozied up reading “The Night Before Christmas,” Doug Holiday and his family will be gathered around a pile of turkeys and ham.

Holiday, who owns Biggs BBQ, 2429 Iowa, is establishing a new winter tradition with his wife, Shawn, and three sons, Seth, 13, Jacob, 10, and Benjamin, 7. For the past two years, the Holidays have spent their Christmas Eves cooking hundreds of pounds of turkey and ham to donate to First United Methodist Church’s Christmas dinner.

The Holidays began cooking for the community in 2005. Before their involvement, Hereford House, which Doug Holiday once managed, smoked the turkeys and ham. But Biggs BBQ, which opened in 2004, was approached to participate soon after it opened.

“It’s just something we wanted to do,” he said. “We wanted to get our kids oriented in community service and actually seeing things firsthand in the real world.”

On the afternoon of Christmas Eve, the Holidays receive truckloads of turkey and ham, which are donated to First United Methodist Church by community members and local businesses. The rest of the afternoon is spent gutting the roughly 50 turkeys and cleaning the 15 hams – about 800 pounds of meat – collected by community members. Then the Holidays take a breather to eat some Christmas pizza and watch a movie (Doug hinted that this year they might watch “Ratatouille”) after Doug begins warming up the Biggs’ smoker.

It can fit 1,000 pounds, but, he said, “It’ll be full. It’ll be standing room only.”

While the meat is cooking, the Holidays go home. But Doug returns twice during the night to make sure the food is cooking properly. The meat cooks for about six hours before Doug turns the heat down about 5 a.m. Christmas morning.

The nightlong cooking process makes for a tasty and tender turkey, he said. In fact, the turkeys become so tender that people serving the Christmas dinner don’t cut the meat, they wear rubber gloves and tear them apart.

Shawn Holiday applauded her husband’s dedication, saying, “He wants to do whatever he can to help the community.”

The church’s annual Lawrence Community Christmas Dinner is expected to feed about 900 people this year, including the homebound, said Kent Ely, a volunteer coordinator at the church. The Holidays’ efforts are a great help to the volunteers, who have come to count on the smoked Christmas feast. The Christmas dinner at the church, 946 Vt., lasts from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Christmas Day. It is open to the public.

“It’s really what Christmas is all about, you know, giving to each other, helping each other,” Ely said.

He said that Maceli’s, 1031 N.H., also donates food and catering vans to deliver meals to the homebound.

Shawn Holiday said the family’s Christmas Eve activity is fun for the entire family. Her three sons, she said, are having fun while learning the value of community service, which they practice year round.

“They absolutely have a blast,” she said. “The night before, on Christmas Eve, we’re there cleaning the turkeys. They have their gloves on, gutting the turkeys, and they just have a blast.”

So while many families go to bed dreaming of sugar plums, the Holidays are forging a different kind of Christmas pastime.

“I think it’s just good to keep our kids aware that they need to be involved in the community,” Shawn said. “This has become our family tradition.”