Once again, head elves Judy Dailey and Jean Stott are overseeing activities leading up to the annual Christmas Cookie Walk and Craft Sale, which will take place on Saturday, Dec. 10, from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. at First Congregational and Central Baptist Churches, located on the Norwichtown Green. (The churches have merged into one building and are in the process of changing their bylaws to officially become one church with a new name.)

Rain or shine, there is a long line out the door, said Stott, the cookie coodinator and baker.

Dailey, the craft fair organizer, added that cookies and baklava usually run out by noon, so she advised visitors to come early.

Everyone is given a container and have the option of choosing a dozen of one kind or mixing, after which they are weighed. Cookies can also be ordered in advance by calling the church office at (860) 889-9520.

Stott has overseen volunteers and cookie production for about eight years. Laughter and camaraderie can be heard from the church kitchen for almost five hours every Monday night beginning in October, she said. Some volunteers bake on other days, at home or in the church kitchen, up until the day before the sale. They create, bake and freeze about 8,000 cookies: 200 cookies in 40 different varieties. They come with names like Snowball (made with confectioners’ sugar and nuts), Santa’s Whiskers (cherries and nuts rolled in coconut), tarts (with peanut butter cups or mixtures of pecan pie or brownies/nuts) and Orange Creamsicles. Other favorite cookies include molasses, lemon sugar, and peanut butter cookies.

Church members also make a wide variety of gluten-free cookies (including fudge) and dog bones made with pumpkin and peanut butter. Last year’s Christmas event raised $3,100 in cookie sales.

About a month before they start baking, the crew gathers around a table with a stack of recipes to decide what works, what doesn’t, and what they want to add, said Stott, who worked with people with disabilities at Seabird Enterprises’ bakery, in Groton, decades ago. She said she doesn’t think of herself as a professional baker, but rather “just a girl that loves to bake.”

In addition to baking cookies, Dailey said she enjoys staying busy and creating crafts — everything from quilts and wreaths, to centerpieces and painted wooden signs and canvasses — because she has a good reason to do it. “If I sold it, I wouldn't get the joy that I get out of being able to donate” the crafts to the church, she said.

Dailey — a retired Montville mathematics teacher and a professional craftswoman, who used to sell her creations at fairs and home parties, has been Christmas craft organizer for five years — said with a laugh that even if she wanted to quit, “they probably wouldn’t let me.”

In 2021, the churches raised over $7,000 from crafts and about the same amount in cookies through the Meetinghouse Rocks Fair in August and periodic Saturday Marketplace events, said Dailey.

“I try really hard to make everything uniquely somebody’s, so you're not going to walk into somebody else's house and see the same thing,” she said.

Money raised through church fairs is a “Godsend,” Rev. Susan Prichard said. “It’s kind of the glue that keeps things going around here. So many people are engaged in baking cookies or the crafts or helping out with the fair.”

She said these activities are also an entry point for new people and a way to stay social for the others. When someone new comes into a church, like when First Congregational Church and Central Baptist Church began their merging process before the pandemic began, it can feel awkward trying to fit into an existing group, Prichard said. However, the craft and cookie endeavors are things people can jump right into, she added.

Dailey said she believes that everyone is capable of some level of creativity, and that the fair offers an opportunity to learn a skill or talent. “We’ve had both men and women, young and old, that have come and done crafts with us. And it's been a great experience for people to realize” their talents, she said.

One such person is Sue Sanborn, who knits and crochets many of the items for the church’s Giving Tree, displayed outside in January. She is now Daley’s right-hand helper. “She does the painting and a lot of the wiring for the Christmas trees,” and now creates crafts of her own, Dailey said.

Dailey believes their church’s biggest asset is the missionary work it does. For example, money raised during “PJ Sunday” and the Christmas Concert on Dec. 11 will be donated to Connecticut Children’s Medical Center in Hartford. “I think what's really wonderful about this church is the culture of the people,” she said. “They're a wonderfully giving, kind group of people.”

“Overall, the general populace of this church is very invested in being with each other and doing activities that enhance the world and just make it a better place to be.”

In addition to making crafts/cookies and being a deacon, Dailey also serves as co-moderator, along with Heather Romanski. The two women are responsible for coordinating committees, organizing church functions and handling legal matters.

Both Dailey and Stott are Norwich residents who grew up as members of First Congregational Church, feel it is a second family and that it is gratifying to help the merging churches raise money.

"I love this building and what it stands for and I love the people. That's what keeps you coming back. … I want us to all stay together, so you have to keep raising money, to keep on keeping on,” Stott said.

For more information about First Congregational Church of Norwich and Central Baptist Church at 81 E. Town St. in Norwich, go to firstcongregationalchurchofnorwich.com.

Jan Tormay, a longtime Norwich resident, now lives in Westerly.