An incredible week at Hill House as residents explore traditions of Christmas across the world, from Mexican poinsettia wreath making, armchair travel to the Philippines to El Gordo lotto scratch cards. We shared and listened to staff and residents share family traditions with one and other and love how Christmas can bring everyone together, whether it is a religious Christmas or a modern Christmas we can all enjoy them together.
Monday morning, our Elf postal service was launched, and Christmas cards have been flooding in we are so delighted to receive cards from loved ones.
Daily sparkle December magazine is the perfect time for reminiscing with one another as we read through the events that have happened in years gone by.
That afternoon, we invited volunteers in for a special thank-you tea party to mark ‘International Volunteers Day’.
The tea party spilled into the day lounge, we loved one another’s company while singing along to Christmas carols.
Tuesday morning, we celebrated Mexican traditions, we started the morning with Mexican Christmas trivia, learning children don’t receive presents from Santa Claus. However, his popularity is growing in Mexican Christmas celebrations. Because of this, some children will receive gifts on 24 December (Christmas Eve) as well as on 6th January for Dia de Reyes.
This was followed by a game of Mexican train dominoes in the day lounge.
Others took part in Christmas arts and crafts, research has shown that crafting, regardless of the medium you use, can bolster mood, improve self-confidence and reduce stress overall. In addition, crafting has been shown to improve mental agility, it improves both gross and fine motor movements, and decreases cognitive decline.
Before lunch we played Jiggle bells on our miniature bell set, we laughed along as we tried to follow the rhyme.
That afternoon, our Christmas choir practice took place in the dining area of the home, with our very own Janet playing keyboard for us. This season is part of a music therapy approach to activities and a taster session for our new dementia choir starting in January 2023 across all 4 homes.
This kind of therapeutic musical work goes much further than nostalgic sing-a-longs and can work on breaking up the repetitive loops of thought (perseveration) which dementia can bring, easing physical movement and encouraging alertness and interaction.
Others made stunning giant paper poinsettias, a traditional Mexican flower for Christmas.
Native to Mexico, the plant is called Flor de la Noche Buena (Flower of the Holy Night) due to its resemblance of the Star of Bethlehem. In their native region of Southern Mexico, poinsettia flowers during the winter season.
Wednesday morning, we explored traditions a little closer to home for an English Christmas jumper day. The morning started with staff dressed up in festive t shirts, dresses and jumpers, they gave a little fashion show in the day lounge to start our morning with hot drinks and mince pies.
Others spent the morning playing scrabble, enticing our home manager to come and help with a superb long word. Scrabble helps stimulate the mind, strength our cognitive skills and focuses the memory process.
We were very excited to hand make our own advent calendar, we coloured in the numbers before working together to hide uplifting messages or pictures behind the advent doors, to be opened each day throughout December.
The popular tradition of advent calendars arose in Germany in the late 1800s and soon spread throughout Europe and North America. Originally, the images in Advent calendars came from the Hebrew Bible. An Advent candle has 25 marks. Every day it is lit and burned down by one mark.
Wednesday afternoon, we completed a stunning sea life jigsaw puzzle and designed our very own Christmas jumpers.
Thursday floor bowls was a fun interactive group game, with lots of us playing it was a great social activity that sparked healthy competition.
A trip to the hairdresser saw us smiling from ear to ear.
That afternoon our floristry club gathered in the day lounge to arrange this week’s stunning floral displays.
Friday morning the gents sat together reading the morning news and listening to Philippine Christmas carols on the tv. We kick started the morning’s activities with Philippine Christmas trivia and social chats about holidays to the Philippines.
As part of our Christmas Around the World Theme, we explored Philippine Christmas traditions in the day lounge. We were delighted to see a ‘Parol’ traditional brought in by our Philippine staff.
It symbolizes the triumph of light over darkness and Filipinos’ goodwill during Christmas season. For Filipinos the Parol making and hanging of them outside is a representation of the star of Bethlehem that guided the Three Wise Men to the manger of the newly born Jesus Christ.
This was followed with a floor game themed around the traditional Philippine lanterns.
Our gardenview lounges enjoyed a themed brain training “spot the difference” game.
A fantastic Philippine Chef Special Lunch at Hill House today with a traditional Escabeche followed by Leche Flan, residents loved trying new flavours.
Hill House airlines soared into the skies of imagination again Friday afternoon much to our pure delight. A trip to the Philippines gave our incredible staff the opportunity to share the countries heritage and Christmas traditions with us. We learnt that the Philippines celebrate Christmas for 4 months!
Our onboard entertainment started with our hostess trolly cart rolling through the aisle serving drinks and refreshments. Traditional Filipino dancing got staff dancing and residents clapping and cheering them on, a travel documentary showed us the beautiful island of the Philippines, leading us perfectly to quiz and trivia and our afternoon ended with a Christmas hymn singalong
Others in our gardenview lounge opted to play the Philippine lantern target game.
Saturday morning and a new day means a new destination and it was time to explore Christmas in Spain.
The tradition of the neules is passed down to new generations through workshops for children (and adults!). It is a low-cost crafting that requires a great deal of concentration and skill, and at the same time helps reduce stress and brightens people’s day. Inspired by this we hand painted ceramic and paper Christmas tree decorations in our gardenview lounge.
El Gordo Spanish lotto rolled around the whole home, we had an opportunity to win prizes as well as a chance to win a hand knitted Santa El Gordo himself.
El Gordo translates to ‘The Fat One’ and our very own inflatable Santa brought so much joy and laughter to us all, scratching off the lotto cards to see if we had won.
This is another fantastic tradition from around the world, and residents have loved learning so many new traditions this week.
Our upcoming 12 days of Christmas Events at Hill House
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