Activities at Oxford Beaumont Care Community

We were really pleased to be joined via Zoom by family, friends, and our local MP, Layla Moran, for our celebration of Christmas lights.

Layla said a few words, thanking the staff at Oxford Beaumont and all care homes and key workers, as well as families for making sacrifices to help keep their loved ones safe this Christmas, before doing the countdown to the lights switching on.

We followed this with Christmas drinks and music, with staff dancing and residents dancing in their chairs. We showed the event on phones and tablets around the home for those who couldn’t be in reception; and the lights on the trees in the two Memory Lane communities were also switched on at the same time.

Thank you to everyone who joined us!

Remembrance Sunday and Armistice Day are key events in the calendar here at Oxford Beaumont. This year, in addition to making sure remembrance services were available for residents to watch on TV, we also made our very own display.

We included names of family members who had served in the services, and Janet asked if she could include a poem that her mother had written. It was very moving talking about memories but everyone who was involved said they were really pleased we had done it.

The maintenance team here at Oxford Beaumont organised a wonderful display of fireworks which residents were able to watch through the windows from the comfort and warmth of reception. Just in case looking outside made anyone feel cold, we made sure there was hot chocolate and mulled wine available to warm us all up.

Staff and residents enjoyed dressing up and playing a few tricks on each other for Halloween this year. One resident particularly enjoyed putting plastic spiders on the receptionist’s chair! We also had tasty treats, including some wonderful sugar pumpkins made by our kitchen team.

Remembrance Day is very important to most of the residents here at Oxford Beaumont and we are involving as many as possible in the preparations for our Remembrance Day Event, and the special afternoon service we are planning.

Residents have been sharing memories and family stories, and even writing poems and making decorations for our display, which is growing daily now. Janet said she would be really happy to share a family poem she has, and Graham and Maggie both enjoyed making some of the poppy decorations.

We also have people making poppies from tissue paper, and crocheting them. Having a variety of crafts involved means we can take the activities to people in different areas of the home, and even into people who are unable to leave their rooms. Great team work!

Harvest Festival is something that often brings back a lot of memories. We celebrated it with a range of events and activities.

We hosted arts and craft and flower arranging sessions, reminiscence sessions, and created our display. We also watched a Harvest Festival service on the television.

Our favourite memory that came up during the week was that of one resident whose daughter was christened at the age of 4 during the time of Harvest Festival celebrations.

She took a liking to the display of apples and picked up a particularly juicy looking one. Unfortunately, it was at the bottom of the pile, which proceeded to roll across the church floor!

Our virtual church service was followed by a small harvest supper, which was something several residents remembered about Harvest, and everyone said how wonderful the display looked.