With Christmas music on the radio and the holidays just around the corner, NAVSTA Everett Youth Programs decided to start celebrating a little early by offering a Celebration of Lights Breakfast Buffet for all the local Navy families.

The event was held last Saturday and featured a breakfast buffet with food from different cultures around the world and holiday arts and crafts like making snowmen ornaments, Kwanzaa mat weaving and a dreidel game.

“We generally like to do a holiday event for our Navy families every year,” said Kate Larson, NAVSTA Everett youth programs and coordinator of the event. “We’ve got two ships out right now so we’ve got a lot of people who’re without loved ones. We basically wanted to provide them with an opportunity to come together and celebrate the holidays with people who are going through the same thing”

Shelby Bassett is a part of one of the families who’ll be celebrating the holidays without a loved one this year. Her husband is currently deployed with the USS Shoup (DDG 86) which left Everett Oct. 14 as a result of the Navy’s Fleet Response Plan (FRP). Shoup is heading for the Pacific Rim to support Commander, U.S. 7th Fleet, in operations and theater security cooperation initiatives. Bassett, who also serves as Shoup’s ombudsman, said being around other Navy families during the holidays makes it easier for everyone to cope with not having members of their family near.

“We love coming to any Navy functions,” said Bassett who attended Saturday’s event with her three children. “It’s good to see other Navy families out. I always tell the other spouses from our ship that at least they can get together and know that someone else is experiencing the same thing and it’s not only happening to them. It really does help.”

Sharing and giving were two of the main themes at this year’s youth programs holiday event. In honor of these two values, gifts were collected from the Navy families during the brunch, which will be used to brighten the holidays for orphans in Djibouti, Africa. Everett’s Youth Programs department is partnered with the Djibouti orphanages through a base in Africa.

“It doesn’t matter what the holiday is, whether it’s Christmas, Kwanzaa or Hanukah, the holidays are about giving,” said Larson.

In the end, over three bins of toys were collected for the African orphanage from the Sailor’s families.