News

Making things Merry and Bright

December 17th, 2019

Creativity was flowing as residents of Points West Living Stettler decorated their own Christmas ornaments in a recent craft activity. They had lots of ‘bling’ to choose from as they crafted their creations, and the result was dazzling.

Trees, stars, reindeer, and snowflakes

The recreation team, including coordinator Elaine Partsch and Recreation Therapist, Lisa Smith decided to offer the ornament workshop in each of PWL Stettler’s six cottages over the first week in December. It took Elaine, Lisa and some resident volunteers a couple of days to prepare the basic ornament shapes by gluing popsicle sticks into the shapes of Christmas trees, stars, reindeer and snowflakes.

Sparkly balls, rhinestones, tiny pompoms...

On their day to make the craft, each resident got to choose the shapes they wanted to decorate, and then they did so with sparkly balls, sticker rhinestones, pompoms and more. As Christmas music played in the background, residents worked chatted amongst themselves about their own Christmas traditions.

Some residents hung their finished ornaments on their walkers, while others hung them in their rooms and on their Christmas trees.

Creative flare and camaradarie

“Residents enjoyed using their creative flare to make various ornaments,” says Lisa, “and the three plagues (of loneliness, helplessness and boredom) were forgotten as residents visited, independently made the craft, and felt purpose in the completed decoration.”

Photo: Jack & Joyce Lawrence (top left), Agnes Block (top right), and Regina Marshall (lower left) show off their colourful creations, while Lois Annas (lower right) sports three new hand-crafted ornaments on her Christmas-decorated walker.

More photos at Flickr: Making things Merry and Bright