Twelve Days of Christmas inspires new Garden Terrace programs
Starting Dec. 12, residents will be treated to programs focused on each day mentioned in the famous Christmas carol
The Garden Terrace life enrichment team has launched a fun and creative way to help residents count down the days to Christmas that was inspired by a favourite song celebrating the season.
Starting yesterday (Dec. 12), the Kanata, Ont. long-term care home will be marking each day with a themed activity taken from the Christmas carol The Twelve Days of Christmas, explains Rachael King, the home’s life enrichment co-ordinator.
On the first day of Christmas, residents and team members will be putting up a “thankful tree” that will be covered with notes about everything residents are thankful for instead of “a partridge in a pear tree”.
On the second day of Christmas, residents will make a turtle dove parachute.
On Day 3 residents will be treated to a “three French hens” chicken pot pie social.
The fourth day of Christmas will feature a “four calling birds choir” that will encourage residents to sing Christmas carols.
Five golden rings mural painting will highlight the fifth day of Christmas.
Other activities to be held during the Garden Terrace 12 days of Christmas include a six geese a-laying scavenger hunt, an eight maids a-milking cookies-and-milk social, and an 11 pipers piping music therapy program.
This is the first time Garden Terrace has hosted this program over the holidays. The idea came from Rachael wanting to do something both different and engaging for residents.
Rachael says it was challenging to find themes to match each day mentioned in the song, “especially since so many are about birds,” she laughs, but by working together the life enrichment team was able to create a 12-day schedule focused on the song.
“I wanted to do something unique, and I thought about The Twelve Days of Christmas,” she says. “We went over it as a team and we collaborated on some ideas that we thought the residents would enjoy.”
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