Our penultimate entry in our Christmas Blog series comes from our Manager Gladys at The Hollies Residential Home in Tunbridge Wells. Gladys’s blog gives us an insight in to the importance of a resident let community and also about how the team comes together to make the festive period family orientated experience for the residents.
“The activities and events are chosen by the residents, this is being done through the residents and family meetings and feedback that we have through throughout the year. We use our social media platforms such as Facebook to let our family and friends know what is going on or of any of the Christmas themed trips planned. We also encourage everyone to join in or volunteer to help at our events.
We try our very best to accommodate the residents requests. Always a popular choice is music and in our home we have a number of Elvis fans so have been lucky enough to have a visit from Elvis Claus! Our outside trips have been within our local community.
We are like any normal home in the preparation for Christmas. The staff will decorate the home with the residents, write the Christmas cards and wrap their gifts with them.
We make the celebration of Christmas extra special for all of our residents, we invite families to join them within our home or we ensure those residents who wish to visit their families on Christmas Day or Boxing Day at their homes are able to do so.
Every year we always have Christmas Panto and a Christmas party which does take a lot of organising but is really worth it.
The staff make it extra special for our residents by singing Christmas carols , arranging for Father Christmas to visit and just making the spirit of Christmas felt in all corners of the home.
There is no greater way to spend the festive season than making our residents feel loved and part of a family.” 
