Halloween at Abbey Wood Lodge

As the Autumn air becomes chillier, the leaves begin to change colour and the days become shorter, we are getting ready for Halloween at Abbey Wood Lodge.  The Reception area and all of the lounges have been decorated with flying bats, giant spiders and of course, pumpkins!  It is beginning to feel quite spooky around here…

Celebrating Halloween in the United Kingdom has only become prevalent in more recent years, so many of our residents haven’t participated in Halloween ‘traditions’ like the younger generations have.  Our residents are more familiar with this time of year being associated with Harvest.  So while the spooky skeletons and scary witch’s costumes are a lot of fun, we have chosen this year to focus primarily on the pumpkins.

On the 16^th October, many of our residents got involved in our Halloween Arts and Crafts activity, where we made a variety of pumpkins.  We used apples cut in half as stamps to create pumpkin Halloween cards, we used orange strips of paper and pipe cleaners to create 3-D pumpkins and we used paper plates and orange yarn to sew a fun pumpkin design.

While Arts and Crafts activities can be messy and on occasion, the end results aren’t exactly what the residents were hoping for (what Bob Ross would refer to as ‘Happy Little Accidents’), we certainly have a lot of fun and the room is always lively with conversation and filled with laughter!

As Halloween creeps closer, we are going to be engaging in other pumpkin-related activities.  We will be painting fun designs on pumpkins to put on display in the days before Halloween.  By painting them (as opposed to carving them), we can enjoy the pumpkin flavours after Halloween as the kitchen puts the pumpkin in soups, cakes and other scrumptious cooking inventions!  In our Baking Club, we are going to make pumpkin cupcakes and mini Halloween biscuits in preparation for our Halloween Party.  Then for the party on the 31^st, we will be having a cupcake decorating competition before we enjoy the sweet treats!  Throughout the party, we will also be participating in a Halloween-themed quiz and we will be having a competition for best costume among the Abbey Wood Lodge team members, families and residents!

Please follow us on our Facebook Page at ‘Abbey Wood Care Home Ormskirk’ to see how our Halloween festivities go, as well as to watch as our home transforms as the festive season draws nearer!