Suggested Holiday Activities

Below are some suggested activities to enhance the Christmas season with Care Receivers who may be limited by dementia or other frailties.  May it make the season brighter for you and your companion!  Please feel free to recommend other activities for me to add to the list.

For highly functioning Care Receivers or people with early stage Alzheimer’s

Write Christmas cards, perhaps design cards by hand or on computer, with your help

Decorate— put greenery around the room

Go for walks to find magnolia leaves or cedar to cut

Knit simple stockings or caps

Bake Christmas treats

Make bird feeders on pinecones

Crack and Shell pecans (who cares if pieces are crushed or full of shell)

Go Christmas caroling to brighten up someoneelse who is lonely, take your own children along

Poke whole cloves in oranges to make Christmas Pomanders

Do crossword puzzles or jigsaw puzzles with Christmas themes together

Reminisce about Christmas traditions

For Mid stage Alzheimer’s or care receivers with limited initiation or functioning

Cut old Christmas cards in half to be used as To/from gift tags

Read last year’s or this year’s Christmas cards again and again

Asktheir help with your Christmas cards: ie, stuff your envelopes, put on your return labels, read your Christmas letter to them

Prepare simple treats, shape Rice Krispie treats into wreaths, stir up no-cook fudge, brew cider and enjoy the fragrance

Start paperwhites  ($1/bulb) in sand, stones, water in a vase.  They take about 3 weeks to bloom.

Sing Christmas carols along with radio or CDs….or better yet, bring your own guitar

Read the history behind each Christmas carol to your Care Receiver

Ask their help as you wrap gifts or make bows and decorations

Tell them about your Christmas traditions and ask about theirs

Drive around to see the lights

For Late Stage Alzheimer’s or bedridden care receivers

Sing Christmas carols to them or listen to radio together (they may still sing or hum along because the brain treasures music almost to the end)

Listen to music whileyou work a Christmas jigsaw puzzle or knit stockings

Read Luke’s account of Christmas, short stories or poems; they may even enjoy The Night Before Christmas

Let them smell Christmas fragrances (potpourris, unlit candles, lotions, cider and teas)

Watch Charlie Brown’s Christmas

Watch the birds at the feeder

Talk about what you are thankful for