Celebrating holidays at your senior living community is always a great idea. It not only is a great way for your residents to have fun, but it also gives them a chance to interact with and spend quality time with others. With Halloween less than a week away, below are some ideas for your community to celebrate Halloween this year.
· Decorate Your Community
Throw a decorating party for your residents so that they can get into the spirit of the holiday. Provide materials, such as cobwebs, orange and black streamers, small pumpkins and even plastic spiders.
· Host a Scary Movie Night
Host a scary movie night for your residents & maybe even their family, by showing vintage horror films, such as The Bride of Frankenstein, Dracula, Psycho, Alien or The Thing. Provide some movies snacks too, such as popcorn, candy and juice. Many younger people haven’t seen the old “sceemy-meemies”.
· Trick or Treating in Your Community
Although your residents may be a little too old to go trick or treating, you can invite their families and even neighborhood kids to come trick or treating at your community. Each room at your community can hand out candy. Or host a Trunk-or-Treat in the parking lot sponsored by vendors or departments.
· Pumpkin Contest
Give your residents pumpkins for them to decorate. They can either carve them or paint them, to avoid the mess of pulling the gook out of the pumpkins, and the danger of knives. Either way, they will surely have fun in this creative process.
· Throw a Costume Party
Invite your residents to get dressed up for Halloween, as well as you and the staff. Provide everyone with music and food and encourage the residents to dance, mingle and have fun. You can even partner with a local senior living community to throw an even bigger costume party. The party can be anything from a simple potluck affair with bingo and dancing, to an elaborate party with carnival games, costume contests and a haunted house.
Whatever you decide to do this Halloween for your residents, remember those that might be alarmed by changes, including decorations, and help them celebrate in a safe and fun manner, and take lots of pictures to share with families thru your social media channels (just make sure you have releases).
Check back next week for more on social media policies.