Flying in for Christmas December 20 2024

The plane that flew in to pick up their Ritchie Hill Bakery order. Image provided by Crystal Coast Aviation.

By Elizabeth Ritchie Sherrill

A whimsical Christmas delivery

Don’t get me wrong, we are excited about each and every order that we send out of Ritchie Hill Bakery’s front door, but this delivery takes the cake! Bakery pun intended.

This month Chad Noble, owner of Crystal Coast Aviation in beautiful Beaufort, NC, ordered Heath’s Cheese Straws and Britt’s Spritz Cookies as gifts for his customers. Being just over 225 miles from Concord as the crow flies, Mr. Noble decided that flying in to pick up his Christmas order would be preferable. I think this story made every Ritchie Hill Bakery family member become completely starry-eyed. How whimsical to have a small plane land and pack in Christmas gifts before sweeping them away to the coast? Packages of product were indeed packed into every open space in the plane’s interior by the pilot that flew in, an image fitting of a Christmas card if there ever was one!

I connected with Mr. Noble this week to thank him for his order and for the amazing anecdote about our family’s small business. We would remember this for Christmases to come! I told him that my dad had flown from Concord to the Outer Banks with a friend who owned a small plane when he was younger, and something about this endeavor felt wholesome and nostalgic. Like a vision of Christmas past in a time forgotten. I was thrilled to hear that the Ritchie Hill Bakery products traveled fabulously. Mr. Noble said, to our delight, “All of our customers have enjoyed the cheese straws and cookies. We will be doing this again next year. The extra box they gave us I gave to my father cause he owned a bakery in Kinston for 40yrs and even he said these were so much better than the ones we used to give our customers in years past.”

Thank you to all of our wonderful customers this Christmas season who make us feel like Santa, sending out small batches of delicious joy. But a special thank you to one customer who adapted Santa’s mode of transportation and gave us the gift of joy in return!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

The Ritchie Hill Bakery Family