I will spend Christmas Day at my husband’s long-term care centre (LTC), where I also volunteer. He is in a dementia unit and I have warm relationships all the residents there. I also want to bring holiday cheer to the residents in the rest of LTC and the hard-working staff.
I’m looking for ideas to help make everyone’s day fun. I am happy to spend money to do this. Once I create a plan, I will review it with the recreation team.
I appreciate this forum greatly and look forward to your collective wisdom on this project.
- Coloring pages of Christmas / winter themes
- Caroling/singalong or just playing holiday music
- Decorating premade sugar cookies
- Hosting Christmas movies and shows throughout the day (including Christmas episodes of older TV shows and some of the classic animated kids' Christmas short films)
If you have more time/funds/volunteers, you could stuff small stockings with low-cost items (travel hand lotion, pocket packs of facial tissues, fidget toy, small ornament, etc). Getting volunteers to prep something ahead of time, including treats or gifts, will be easier than finding others willing to join you on the actual holidays.
We'll be visiting my MIL on Christmas Day, and it's a similar situation - they have activities throughout the month and they do a great job, but Dec 24-25 are really for staff to spend time with their own families. We'll bring gifts and food and then go for a car ride (MIL's favorite activity) and look up maps ahead of time of neighborhoods to drive through with good light displays.
Please don't try and overdo it. The staff will be busy. Remember, they are on the clock, and they will have patients who need their help. Keep it simple, cheery, maybe bring some decorations, some snacks, keeping in mind some of the residents may not be able to eat certain foods. Bring some cookies for the staff.
Wear a santa hat, and give everyone you see a smile. That will brighten anyone's day!
On Christmas Day, residents went outside, and employees' spouses rode past in their cars in a parade. Santa jumped out of the back of a pickup truck and walked around to greet the residents and aides.
There's a group of line dancers who visit and dance for the residents at various times of the year. You could find such a group in your area who might be willing to dance for your LTC. It's always a source of great cheer.
To provide context, LTC has an excellent rec team that does a lot leading up to Christmas. Residents really do enjoy seeing the decorations go up. They even participate in making the decorations and cookies and other treats.
However, I have noticed Christmas Day is just another day for residents who don’t have family come to visit. The dementia unit is particularly quiet because most of these residents wake up not even knowing it’s Christmas. And, of course, there are no recreation staff on duty that day.
I know the rec team will appreciate someone on site encouraging Christmas cheer on Dec 25. I’m hoping to bring them some ideas I could perform, which I’m sure they will then enhance.