The most wonderful time of the year – Christmas at Anchor Hanover

Despite the holiday looking a little different this year, within our care homes, Christmas remained as important as ever, with both our staff and our residents outdoing themselves to ensure the festive season was a special time for all.

As always, our care home calendars were packed with celebrations, that saw colleagues and residents taking part in Yuletide challenges, arts and crafts, festive cooking and Christmas-themed quizzes. 

But that’s not all! This year, our care homes truly went above and beyond to rustle up some magic and spread that festive cheer – so here’s a round-up of just a few of the activities we got up to this Christmas:

Mayflower Court’s homemade theatre

With a usual trip to the theatre not possible this year, the residents and staff at Mayflower Court took the opportunity to instead bring the theatre to them – getting together for a unique screening of the festive classic ‘A Christmas Carol’, streamed live from The Old Vic Theatre. The care home lounge area was transformed into an auditorium, with residents even provided with tickets, programmes and a glass of bubbly for the true theatre experience!

The Manor House virtual Christmas market

Outdoor events may have been cancelled but, in true Anchor Hanover style, several of our care homes joined forces to host their very own Christmas market. Gifts and goods were submitted by residents from each care home, with viewers then able to take their pick before their gift was delivered for the big day!

Community Christmas trees

Breaking from tradition, several Anchor care homes (including Greenhive, Greenacres, Linwood and Glendale) set up Christmas trees in front of their entrances this year and invited the local community to help decorate them. The communities responded in spades, kickstarting the festivities at each location before each tree was then lit up in spectacular fashion!

Elves on shelves

All throughout December, there appeared to be several elves on the loose at Anchor locations across the country. We’re not quite sure where they came from but they cooked up a little mischief and got into all sorts of places, with their cheeky appearances bringing big smiles to the faces of residents and staff. 

Ferendune Court’s special delivery

Ferendune Court care home partnered with local schools for the Santagram project, which delivered gift bags to older people across Faringdon over the festive period. Each gift bag contained a whole host of Christmas treats and was hand-delivered to the home by one of Santa’s helpers!
 

West Hall’s Winter Wonderland

Residents and carers teamed up at West Hall care home to create illuminated outdoor spaces, inspired by their favourite Christmas traditions. The event was such a success, it’s now set to become an annual event!

In a year like no other, ensuring we continue to support residents to live a fulfilled and rewarding life is more important than ever. We’ve been dedicated to that mission for the last 50 years and despite the challenges we’ve all faced this year, we remain committed to lifting spirits and creating smiles – during both the holiday season and beyond.