It was a wicked afternoon at Briarlea Residential & Dementia Care Home this Saturday. Our award winning, 27-bed care home was transformed into a ghoulish cavern – complete with cobwebs, skeletons, and all manner of creepy crawlies!
Well-presented care home residents swapped their brillo cream and curlers for devil horns and witches’ hats. It wouldn’t have felt out of place to hear the odd ‘hubble, bubble, toil and trouble!’ rising from the corridors. A great selection of kitten ears was also available for individuals to fashion themselves into a witch’s familiar. Briarlea’s infernal coven was complete – all we needed was a cauldron!
Once the whole gang were in the garden room, we kick started party games to mark the festive occasion. There was ‘spider splat’, the ever-popular bingo (Halloween-themed, of course!) plus a spooky version of ‘pin the tail on the donkey’ called ‘pin the spider on the web’. It was great fun. The winning witches and warlocks took their pick of the creepy candies available.
At Briarlea, we like to think that Halloween is all about togetherness. The coming together of the community to turn the humdrum nature of everyday life on its head. Everyone therefore really enjoyed welcoming young trick or treaters from the local area, who came to pick up sweets from the threshold of our home. Many residents who lived close to the care home, would have marked the special occasion with their families in a similar way before moving in. For them (as with everyone else), it was great to continue being at the heart of all the village fun.
Our visitors also admired the pumpkins on display, which residents had carved earlier in the week. Despite it only being the first time that some of us had carved a pumpkin, the entries were of the highest standard. We look forward to the state-of-the-art jack-a-lanterns our budding sculptors will carve next year.
In the meantime, Briarlea’s cookery club is making a head start on Christmas by soaking our Christmas cakes in brandy ready for December 25! Many of our residents have had years of experience perfecting this perfect Yuletide dessert – we can’t wait to roll on Christmas.
