Collaboration between activity providers and the catering team in care homes is important to create enjoyable and meaningful activities for residents. These events not only include Christmas but all winter celebrations such as Hanukkah, Diwali, Winter Solstice, Kwanzaa, Burns Night and Chinese New Year.
Natalie Ravenscroft, Services Manager from charity National Activity Providers Association (NAPA) says, “July and August isn’t too early to start planning these activities. The winter season presents an opportunity to create rich and varied experiences that recognise and honour the cultural, spiritual, and personal identities of residents. To achieve this, care homes must nurture collaboration between activity providers, catering teams and wider staff groups, ensuring that no resident is left out – particularly those living with dementia or those who are cared for in their rooms or beds.”
Encouraging Joint Planning Between Teams
She recommends joint planning sessions where activity providers and catering teams can discuss and devise event programmes and menus tailored to residents. “This can be done by sharing resident profiles including dietary needs, cultural or religious dietary requirements such as kosher, halal, vegetarian and diabetic-friendly,” she says. “When catering and activity teams work closely together, they create cohesive and engaging experiences that celebrate diversity and promote inclusion. It’s also important to consult with residents and their families to ensure authenticity when preparing dishes to reflect different traditions.”
Natalie refers to the investigation and research into each resident’s background as “life story work”, which is critical for the success of each event. “By gathering personal histories, food preferences, family recipes, and significant mealtime memories, staff can create food-based activities that are deeply resonant. For example, a resident who once ran a café might respond positively to making sandwiches or serving tea, while a person who enjoyed gardening may find joy in preparing herbs or fruits they once grew.”
Making Food Activities Personal
She suggests embedding an individual’s interests and experiences into food activities. “Rather than hosting a standard cooking session, staff might invite a resident with Italian heritage to lead a pasta making activity or share stories around family meals. Similarly, music played during meal prep or tasting sessions should reflect individuals’ preferences, such as traditional folk songs during a themed Eastern European snack session or 1950s hits during an ice cream social,” she says.
Catering teams play a vital role in winter celebrations by creating themed menus aligned with cultural festivals such as latkes and brisket for Hanukkah, samosas and sweet treats for Diwali or haggis for Burns Night. In addition, the dining room can be transformed through decorations and menu design to reflect the spirit of the celebration. “Residents can be involved through interactive food-based activities such as baking sessions, food tasting events or cooking demonstrations,” adds Natalie. “Taste sessions featuring culturally significant or historically themed foods such as wartime recipes, traditional Sunday roasts, or festival treats can spark meaningful conversations and reconnect individuals with their personal and cultural heritage.”
For residents living with dementia, food can serve as a powerful reminiscence tool, stimulating memory and emotion through taste, aroma and presentation. Natalie says, “We recommend specialist dementia training for all activity and catering staff. When this is centred around food, sensory activities become especially powerful, as taste and smell are closely linked to memory and emotion. Sensory activities engage the five senses (touch, taste, smell, sight, and sound).”
For residents who are isolated in their rooms due to mobility issues or illness, Natalie suggests personalised winter celebration meal trays featuring thoughtful touches such as handwritten cards, seasonal trivia and small decorations. “It’s essential that all residents are included in these celebrations regardless of mobility or health status,” she adds.
Food-Based One-to-One Engagements
Other strategies include trolleys offering a selection of festive drinks and snacks delivered to rooms and one-to-one engagement where activity staff bring elements of larger celebrations direct to residents through bedside storytelling, sensory boxes or musical visits, which can all be centred around food. Natalie explains, “Sensory storytelling can be enriched with food props such as the smell of fresh bread during a narrative about baking at home, or visual and tactile items like fruit peels, cooking utensils or herbs.”
Examples of sensory boxes include a festival foods box, which can evoke seasonal or religious celebrations using visual cues such as decorative napkins, the aroma of spices, sweet treats and culturally linked music. A baking memories box may include tactile items like rolling pins and wooden spoons, the smell of cinnamon or vanilla, retro recipe cards, kitchen audio clips, and sample biscuits or scones, and a tea-time box might include China cups, the sound of clinking crockery and favourite afternoon cakes.
Musical visits can also be tailored to food themes such as Italian opera during a pasta tasting or Caribbean steel drums during a tropical fruit session, creating a fully immersive sensory experience.
Meeting Holistic Wellbeing Needs
A programme of winter celebrations can address all areas of wellbeing for residents. Natalie says, “Emotional needs may be met through sharing comfort foods or baking familiar recipes. Social wellbeing is supported through communal cooking, tasting sessions, or shared meals that promote conversation and companionship.
Cognitive stimulation is provided through following simple recipes, identifying ingredients or discussing food origins, while spiritual needs may be addressed through food connected to faith traditions or meaningful rituals. Physical wellbeing is supported by light food preparation tasks such as kneading dough, stirring, or chopping herbs.”
Visit https://napa-activities.co.uk/ for further information.
