The Fleet Care Home in Dartmouth have thanked all their staff for their hard work over the Christmas period, which has been packed full of festive events to spread some cheer for their residents.

The activities started back in November, with staff bringing in props and hats to take individual portraits of residents that were put onto personalised Christmas cards for friends and family.

Residents also made individual Christmas cards for Merry Go Round Pre School in Stokenham, who returned the favour.

Kimberly Heales, activity manager at The Fleet, said: “We are huge believers in building community links here at The Fleet… (the families) loved the truly personal touch we injected for our residents.”

December saw an abundance of fun activities at the care home, with staff hosting an Elf Day for Alzheimers Society early in the month.

Kimberly said of the event: “With the generosity of over 50 local businesses in Dartmouth and surrounding area’s we had a huge raffle and coffee morning with lots of home made cakes and we raised a huge £1085.40 for the charity. Staff and residents all dressed up as elves.”

They also entertained residents with music, inviting Dartmouth Parish Choir to walk around the three floors of the home and sing to residents. Three local singers also come to visit up and perform festive party sets, with Viki Philp, Tim Crew and Patrick Jervis all coming to perform.

Kimberly said: “We were wearing festive headwear and used our jingle bells and tambourines to add to the party atmosphere, staff and residents would get up dancing and also have a go at singing too.”

They hosted a wreath making work shop with Zoe Oxenbury, who spent 3 hours making wreaths to use around the home, and the care home’s Christmas tree was provided by Bugford.

The festive period also saw multiple visits, from 2 local primary schools, St Johns and Dartmouth Academy, where the pupils sang a wide variety of Christmas songs for residents, and a very special visit from Bean, a miniature pony. Bean came to visit with the team led by Jenny from Ash Rescue Centre.

Kimberly said: “Our residents were in disbelief to see a little horse turn up in their bedroom but its created some magical moments people will never forget.”

All this festive cheer was made possible due to the wonderful hard work of all the staff at The Fleet care home.

Kimberly praised all their efforts: “Staff all month have embraced Christmas and been wearing Christmas t shirts, jumpers, festive costumes. (They) have gone above and beyond to decorate individuals bedrooms, sing carols to individuals and really embraced the spirit. The staff and friends of The Fleet have donated food and toiletries to make up a couple of boxes to be donated to local charity Dartmouth Community Chest… These boxes went to family who might have been struggling with the cost of Christmas in this tough financial year.

“The kitchen team have been elite in making cookies, mince pies, cakes for our ladies and gents to decorate. 

“Night staff took on the challenge of Elf on the Shelf to inject some cheeky fun for our ladies and gents to find out what the naughty elf had been up too during each night on the build up to Christmas.”

The in house activities team at The Fleet, made up of Kimberly Heales, Elaine White and Sue James, truly made the magic of Christmas happen for residents this year, with something festive happening every day.

“Movie days, luxury hot chocolates, quizzes, carol-oke, decoration making, plenty of arts & crafts, festive chairobics and xmas yoga,” listed Kimberly, “this could not have been possible without the support of all of the staff who were only too happy to be involved with the Christmas magic also. Team spirit at its finest! It’s brought the best out of the whole team who work at The Fleet.”

She added: “I am the activities manager for The Fleet and its been a pleasure to organise such a fun packed and busy schedule of events. I can’t stress enough how much of a whole workforce effort this was to make sure our ladies and gents had an amazing month. I’m so proud of the whole team at The Fleet and want to thank them for making such a huge difference to our ladies and gents lives.”