After the stress and worry of Covid, we’re glad to be getting a bit more back to normal at Westward Care – and for us, that means celebrating the festive season in style with our residents, their families and our wonderful team of staff.
Each of our three locations (
Southlands Retirement Apartments in Roundhay,
Headingley Hall in Headingley, and
Pennington Court in Beeston), has their own dedicated activities team, who work with our residents and their families to plan a month of festive celebrations, creative activities and, of course, lots and food and drink.
We’ll be kicking off December with our traditional Christmas tree decorating, with residents helping to put up the tree and making their own ornaments to deck the halls. Then, in the evening, all our residents and staff will gather in our lounge areas for the Christmas tree grand reveal and lights switch-on with mince pies and mulled wine.
Throughout December, we have a range of hands-on workshops, relaxation afternoons and good old-fashioned Christmas fun to get everyone in the festive spirit.
Our residents will be busy making and sending Christmas cards to loved ones, decorating their own wreaths and gingerbread houses, and having lots of rounds of festive bingo.
And as our residents love to keep their minds and bodies active, they’ll also be doing Christmas crosswords, getting competitive with our Yuletide quiz and doing their exercises to a festive soundtrack!
It’s also important for our residents to have some time to wind-down too with some entertainment to enjoy. We’ll be screening Christmas films in the afternoons, inviting local schoolchildren to our gardens for some carols and having a couple of our own sing-alongs to our favourite Christmas hits.
And the festive season isn’t complete at Westward Care without our annual panto – which is a firm favourite in the advent calendar for our residents and staff.
As well as being a time for joy and celebration, we also know that for many of our residents, families and staff, Christmas can also be a difficult time of year – especially after the past eighteen months in which some of our residents and staff have lost loved ones.
So, this year, we’re also going to be running a festive advent calendar on our social media channels, asking staff, residents and their families to share their messages about reflection on 2021 and how they’re planning to celebrate the season.