Honest Ed’s annual turkey giveaway has gone the way of the dodo, but like a phoenix rising from the ashes, the tradition found new life on Sunday.

The retail institution at Bloor and Bathurst is closing its door at year’s end, and its handing out of Christmas turkeys — an annual event for almost 30 years — might have gone with it, had a neighbour not stepped in, starting this weekend.

And so Karen Koh showed up at 9 a.m., armed with a collapsible chair and a big backpack for her bird, not at Honest Ed’s but at Freeman Real Estate, a local business a short walk away which decided to fill the void.

“But there was no one in line yet,” said Koh, 26, who nonetheless had to wait hours to get her turkey, as the giveaway began at noon. “I have really high rent so it’s hard to afford nice meat sometimes.”

The real-estate firm — along with Spirit of Math, an afterschool math program for kids — purchased 9,000 pounds worth of turkey, or 504 turkeys, for the Sunday event.

“We’ve been here for 45 years and we’ve always done stuff for the community,” said Elden Freeman, the president of Freeman Real Estate. Freeman’s father, Barry Freeman, started the business in 1972 and the family has been part of the community for decades.

“We’re carrying on the tradition because there’s a vacuum. It was just the right thing to do.”

The giveaway started off a little slow in the morning, with about 70 people queued up, but the line slowly grew.

People clustered together to stay warm while volunteers from St. Alban’s Boys and Girls Club — which also received a donation from Freeman — and Spirit of Math students brought coffee out and handed out candy canes.

Some people standing in line said they didn’t know about the Freeman giveaway until they stumbled across it. While waiting, Karen Henry said she had gotten to interact with other people from the community who she wouldn’t have met otherwise.

“This is a tradition,” she said, adding she remembered Honest Ed’s charity tradition from years ago, though she had never gone herself.

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Sigrid Kneve, a 59-year-old activist who doesn’t eat meat herself, came to get a free turkey to bring to a lunch for the homeless at Allan Gardens.

“I think it’s great, I do. Maybe not for the turkeys, but . . . the need is there. Turkeys are expensive,” she said.

The Freeman company has expressed an interest in carrying on the tradition next year.

“It’s not degrading,” Kneve added of the giveaway. “It’s festive.”