“That’s the bit that makes it all worthwhile,” says Dana MacDonald, manager at Ythanvale Care Home in Ellon.
Dana and her team put in a lot of work – including fundraising with a Santa’s Grotto – to make Christmas Day special for the residents at the Ellon care home.
“So much work goes into organising all of it,” she tells me.
“But then it all comes together, and all the residents are able to have their meal and have a giggle with the staff.
“Christmas Day is special. And you all get to have that sit down, and everybody is just relaxing together.
“You look around and you see the smiles on everyone’s faces and they’re all just ‘stappit fou’.”
‘Just like they’re at home’ at Christmas at Ythanvale Care Home
Dana explains that the majority of the residents will be here for Christmas Day.
There are some who will go out with their families, but due to mobility issues and other factors, many of them remain at the care home.
So Dana and her team do their utmost to make it a fun and nostalgic experience for everyone.
“At 11 o’clock on Christmas Day, Santa comes,” she says.
“And then the families come in and they open their Christmas presents together here with the residents.
“If the families want to eat with the residents, we can also set up a little table for them with their family members. And they can sit together and have their meal with them.
“Just like they’re at home.
“One year, we were all sitting till three o’clock, just because they were having such a good time.”
‘We want to enhance their lives’
Dana hopes that other fun activities – like meeting Shetland ponies and The Critter Keeper – help the residents find fulfilment during this chapter of their lives.
The care home fundraises for these days out with coffee mornings and other events, and also receives funding from the Aberdeenshire Health and Social Care Partnership.
“When people say that they’re coming to a care home,” says Dana, “it’s like they’re saying that’s the end of your journey.
“A lot of people would say once you’re in a care home, that’s it, you don’t have any quality of life.
“But that’s not what we want it to be like at Ythanvale.
“This is just another chapter of their life.
“And we want to enhance their lives.
“Ythanvale is like my little baby.
“We’re just like one big family. Our residents – I and all the staff class them as our family really.
“And we want to make their Christmas Day just as special for them.
“So we have the traditional music playing, Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra, Nat King Cole.
“And we have carol singers that come in.
“There is lot of reminiscing. It’s lovely.”
Residents get to help choose the Christmas Day menu
Ythanvale Care Home resident Chrissy Price has been living there since May last year.
The care home is run by Aberdeenshire Health and Social Care Partnership, which provides health and social care within the community.
Christmas Day at the Ellon care home was a highlight for Chrissy last year, and she enjoyed socialising with the staff.
“It was fine to sit with everybody,” she tells me.
“I don’t see [the cooks] every day so it’s nice to speak as well.
“The staff here are really good.”
Some of the ladies and I had a chat about what belongs on the Christmas dinner plate.
They agreed that it’s got to be skirlie, no “funcy” sage and onion stuffing, and of course clootie dumpling for pudding.
They were quite scandalised when I revealed that my boyfriend insists on eating Yorkshire puddings on Christmas Day.
The residents get to have their say in the Christmas Day menu during a meeting with the kitchen team.
I hear there were some fiery discussions about whether or not jelly belongs in a trifle.
‘Everybody is happy and in the Christmas spirit’
Cooks Toria Miles and June Dickie are part of the team in the kitchen that help to make Christmas Day happen for the Ythanvale residents.
They tell me that working on Christmas Day is “never a thought”.
“That’s what we’re here for,” says June.
“Meals are one of their main enjoyments really, so it’s great to make their Christmas more special.
“We get to sit down and eat with them too which we enjoy.
“It’s good fun, the day really flies by.
“Everybody is happy and in the Christmas spirit.”
Toria, who has worked at the care home for nine years, adds: “I really like making the meals that make the residents so happy and smiling.
“They all really like coming together for the meal.
“It’s a great day.”
Conversation