Activities at Milford House Care Home

Residents, family, friends and staff members enjoyed our 'Winter Wonderland' Fashion Show as our gorgeous in-house models General Manager Aga, Gale, Wendy and Jo walked the red carpet in our Dining Room and Conservatory, which were both packed, as well as doing some modelling in rooms showing off a vibrant range of vintage fashions from the 50s, 60s. 70s and 80s. 

Residents and guests also got into the spirit of the afternoon by donning some great hats, scarves and accessories of their own as they perused the special show programmes while waiting for the proceedings to begin.

With expert runway commentary from Di Hampstead of Vintage Shuffle and Alice Madicott from The Salisbury Museum this was such a fun way to spend a cold and dull afternoon as the fashions lit up the two rooms. 

With ball gowns, polka dots, underskirts, sequins and plenty of fab accessories including a crowd pleasing Christmas bauble bag, each ensemble was enthusiastically greeted by the audience and after a final walk by our fab four all that was left was to decide which outfit was our favourite - a difficult task indeed!

Over the past weeks, and for the second year running, Milford House has collected, sorted and wrapped Christmas boxes to be sent to Southern Europe and the final count was 34 and some extras - so a HUGE, HUGE thank you to everyone who dropped off items for our boxes ranging from baby clothes and toiletries to items for adults and everything in between!  

It was a real team effort from residents, staff, our volunteers, family and visitors to help us get them ready in-house and they are really going to make a difference to someone this Christmas.

Having assembled them they were delivered to the House of Opportunity collection depot at Woodfalls where they joined over 7000 other boxes from all over the country to be packed up ready to be sent on their way. 

It is a huge undertaking and residents, staff, family and friends are all delighted that we have been able to play a small part in spreading some Christmas joy and as one of our residents commented ‘I love the idea that these boxes are starting their journey and will be opened far away from here to make Christmas a little brighter for someone.’

What a fabulous display of trees we enjoyed at St Thomas's Church Christmas Tree Festival in Salisbury where groups of residents visited on consecutive days. 

There were over 100 trees to admire, including our own at Milford Christmas House, and we were thrilled to see so many people looking at it and delighted that a photo of it appeared in an article by BBC Wiltshire celebrating 20 years of the Festival.

When anyone wanted a break from the trees we were able to sit and listen to one of the musical performances that were taking place throughout the day. 

This is the second time Milford has had an entry and looking at all the other trees on display we are already talking about ideas for next year! This was such a wonderful way to get into the Christmas spirit and thanks to the team who co-ordinated all the visits, our drivers and volunteers - we all had a great time!

Residents, family members and staff enjoyed a week of celebrations for Diwali – The Festival of Light.  During the course of the week we made lanterns to decorate our dining tables, held an Indian evening meal with fabulous table settings, created Diwali hangings, held an Indian tea tasting afternoon and hosted a quiz ‘all about India’ all the while embracing bright traditional colours and decorations that are such a feature of this festival.

A colourful Curry Evening was the highlight of the week and our dining room looked fabulous with wonderful vibrant decorations and place settings while our kitchen team served up a delicious meal and our team members looked amazing in traditional dress as our residents assembled for a great evening get together. 

Residents and family members had a great morning making their own Christmas tree shaped glass decorations. Thank you so much to Helen Southwell who tutored a packed conservatory in the art of making fused glass decorations for our trees. 

With coffee and pastries to keep us fuelled for the morning the group designed, glued and admired each other’s creativity as everyone got down to work and at the end of the session Helen had some gorgeous hangings to take away and fire in her kiln where they will be for 12 hours at 800 degrees Celsius! 

The finished articles will then be returned to us in a week or so and we can't wait to see them.  This was such a fun way to get us gently into the Christmas spirit and the session was so popular that we are holding another in a couple of weeks’ time.

The opening night of the ‘Sarum Lights’ at Salisbury Cathedral, which explored the theme of ‘time’, was an amazing, colourful and evocative immersive experience that lit up the medieval building in the most creative way.

It was thoroughly enjoyed by the Milford residents who made the evening trip out.

Our group was there for the 5.30pm session which featured the quieter programme in terms of the music, and getting there early meant there was loads of space for everyone to see all the fabulous light effects both inside and out. 

We are so lucky to have this incredible building in the heart of our city to enjoy in so many ways.

Thank you to the access team at the Cathedral who made the arrangements for the mini-bus, and to our volunteers who came along to help for this special evening.