Holiday Planning
The holidays are upon us! Though, they may look a bit different this year, there is no reason we can’t get creative and give our residents a memorable holiday season.
This blog post is all about ways to celebrate the festive season at home!
Planning ahead
Planning ahead insures that you, as the provider are not scrambling around last minute, frantically trying to get everything organized for the holidays on top of everything else you’re responsible for. The first thing is to decide what it is you’re planning to do for your residents. Are you celebrating both Christmas eve and Christmas? Are your residents planning to go out? These are things that need to be planned for in advance especially with all of the rules surrounding COVID. Are you going to be ordering decorations and gifts? Are you purchasing in store? If so, you’ll need to do that ahead of time. The post office and FedEx are anticipating issues with delivery of items especially during the season as these are unprecedented times. We recommend getting started with all shopping now so you get what you WANT and NEED. It is also recommended that you enlist someone that can handle holiday planning and decorating for you. Kora’s Senior Living has that option for you! check it out at www.korasseniorliving.com/services. We are currently doing virtual consultations as well as planning. Book now as spots do fill up fast!
Budget
Gifts are a big part of the season. As mentioned above you do want to plan ahead in ordering if you want to make sure there aren’t any issues with your delivery. It is important to look at your budget for your adult family home and see how much you can spend on your staff, and residents, if you plan on getting everyone a gift. Remember it doesn’t matter how much you spend, it is the meaning behind the gift. Budget for things like a house tablet (if you don’t already have one). A house tablet will make it easier for family members to zoom or face time since they cannot be together. A house tablet can also be a great way to virtually connect with your home’s pianist for example since they cannot be at the home. Amazon is a great resource for ordering multiple items to your adult family home in a timely manner. We also love shopping at target, and Walmart. We love using excel spreadsheets to keep track of all of our holiday budgets for our clients.
COVID Restrictions
By now we are all aware of the restrictions put upon us. When residents are in the public areas of the home they do need to socially distance and be wearing a mask. Take a look at your home and see if this is possible for you. If you have a smaller home, you’ll need to take that into consideration when planning for the holidays. Some ideas would be…
have a caregiver do a couple of decorating tasks with each resident one on one. This will keep the common areas from getting to populated at one time.
If having a dinner or lunch spread the clients out throughout the home and have the staff walk around to make sure everyone is okay and still feels included.
Look out for the December activity calendar later this month. It will be posted at www.korasseniorliving.com/shop. The November activity calendar is already out and if you subscribe to our mailing list you’ll be notified when it goes live. There will be many more activities listed there as well as caregiver instructions.
These are different times for all of us and providers especially are under a lot of stress. Get the help you need and make it a great season.
Remember to stay up to date on COVID restrictions and DSHS rules regarding adult family homes prior to planning activities in your home.