Preparing for Christmas Visits with Loved Ones in Care Homes
Christmas is all about family time. It is time spent with loved ones, sharing gifts, enjoying food and being merry. However, when a loved one is in a care home, Christmas can feel a bit different. But, with a carefully planned Christmas visit, you can create a festive visit to celebrate the season with your loved one despite them being in a care home.
Preparing emotionally and logistically for your visit, embracing their reality, reminiscing with them and creating new traditions will leave you feeling positive, cheerful and festive.
At LuxuryCare, we love the festive season, so we do everything we can to ensure our homes across Poole and Bournemouth feel full of Christmas cheer. Our open-door policy is never more important than over Christmas, as we encourage all our residents’ families to visit and celebrate together throughout December.
In this blog, we share how you can prepare for the best Christmas visit with your loved one in a care home.
Planning Ahead
To make the most of a festive visit, it is a good idea to plan the visit ahead of time. Book a date in your diary so you know when to have everything together.
Then you can prepare everything you need for a festive visit.
Preparations should include:
- Having personalised gifts for your loved one
- Timing your visit based on their energy levels
- Dressing festively but comfortably
- Bringing their favourite Christmas treats, music or decorations
Preparations can help you feel festive before you even arrive, meaning you bring that excitement and cheer with you.
Embracing Their Reality
If your loved one is living with a health condition, especially dementia, you should embrace their reality. This means understanding their mental capacity and mobility limitations.
Engaging with them at their level will reduce frustrations and help build trust.
Acknowledging and respecting physical and mental limitations also means you accommodate their needs, which allows them to keep their dignity and means they feel included.
Making sure you understand their abilities enables you to be empathetic and supportive so they feel safe and valued. This often helps them engage in the interactions with you. On top of this, it helps avoid misunderstandings or unintentionally dismissing their capabilities, enhancing the overall interaction.
A few tips to help you navigate conversations with your loved one are:
- Focus on their interests
- Use simple and clear language
- Ask for open-ended conversation to encourage detail
- Acknowledge their reality
Interactions with a loved one in a care home can require patience. By embracing this, you will find the interaction so much more rewarding.
- Embrace silent pauses and give them time to think and respond
- Be fully present and focus on this specific moment
- Adapt to their pace by mirroring energy levels and speaking speed
- Reframe frustrations as an opportunity to connect rather than a challenge
- Celebrate the small wins by acknowledging their efforts and reinforcing positivity
Going Down Memory Lane
Everyone has fond memories of their Christmases with family, personal traditions and memories.
Christmas is a very nostalgic time for everyone, especially for those living with dementia.
Reminiscing with a loved one brings a sense of familiarity back to them, removing the fear of the world around them that they no longer recognise.
This helps them relax and feel safe in the interaction, enhancing it overall.
Activities that you can do to encourage this are:
- Looking through photo albums and watching family videos
- Singing or listening to familiar Christmas songs or carols
- Sharing stories of their favourite traditions
- Encouraging them to share their cherished memories
Creating New Traditions Together
Your loved one being in a care home shouldn’t stop your traditions, but it should also be seen as an opportunity for you to create new ones with them.
There are many ways you can make a new tradition in the care home:
- Attend festive annual events at the care home
- Decorate a smaller tree together in their room
- Do Christmas crafts together – this might be joining in the coordinated activities during the season with them
You could even try to take your traditions to the care home to share with them. For example, if you used to open presents together, why not take a selection with you on your visit so you can all open presents together.
Leaving with Love and Positivity
Even if your loved one is living with dementia, it is important to leave on a positive note and create a lasting memory, not least for yourself.
Leaving on a happy note reinforces your connections with them, fostering reassurance, reducing anxiety and leaving them feeling valued and loved.
On the flip side, for you, it sets the tone for the next visit, helping build trust and anticipation.
But saying goodbye can be hard, especially after such a wonderful time together.
So, here are a few tips you can use:
- Express gratitude and thank them for the time you shared
- Share positivity by highlighting happy moments to leave them smiling
- Offer reassurance and let them know when you’ll see them next or that they are in your thoughts
- Don’t be afraid of physical gestures such as hugs or a warm touch to reinforce affection
Christmas with LuxuryCare
At the LuxuryCare care homes, we love a reason to celebrate, and Christmas is no exception!
Our teams do everything they can to create a festive and cheerful atmosphere throughout December, with decorations, festive activities and events planned. Plus, on Christmas day, our in-house chefs cook a delicious Christmas dinner that is topped off with crackers and bad jokes.
Throughout the whole period, our open door policy remains, and we love to welcome relatives and friends into our home to enjoy time together. You are always welcome to join in our activities or stay for dinner – just let us know so we can cook enough for you.
If you aren’t sure how to celebrate with your loved one, don’t hesitate to get in touch with our staff, and we can help you figure it out, whether you aren’t sure about their health condition or just want to know what you can and can’t bring to our homes, we are just a phone call away. Call us on 01202 037373.
