Residents at Royal Star & Garter are enjoying the build-up to Christmas.

Residents have been helping decorate the Homes, in Solihull, Surbiton and High Wycombe, and taking part in festive arts & crafts and cookery activities, concerts and enjoying yuletide outings.

Royal Star & Garter provides loving, compassionate care to veterans and their partners living with disability or dementia, and has this year launched new services to reach out into the community.

In Solihull, residents were helped by staff at the Home to put together their own carol service, which took place on Friday, 15 December. As well as Christmas classics including Away in a Manger and We Three Kings, it also featured readings from residents. There has also been Christmas cake-mixing and Christmas card-making, while later in December residents will welcome entertainers, including bell-ringers.

Residents at the High Wycombe Home have been enjoying Christmas movie afternoons, and there was intergenerational fun when they watched a Nativity play at nearby Little Kingshill School. Cooking activities have seen them make delicious mince pies, and closer to the big day itself, they will watch a pantomime and take part in a Big Christmas Quiz.

In Surbiton, residents helped decorate Christmas cakes, and enjoyed pottery sessions. Children from Ellingham Primary School brought the spirit of Christmas with them to the Home when they sang carols, while the am-dram group St Paul’s Players also sung for residents. There was more fun with a Jack and the Beanstalk panto.

‘It’s a joy to see so much cheer in our Homes’

Shirley Hall, Royal Star & Garter’s Director of Care & Wellbeing, said: “Christmas means a lot to many residents, and staff work really hard to make the festive season magical for residents, their loved ones and the local community. It’s a joy to see so much cheer in our Homes.”

Royal Star & Garter is welcoming new residents in all its Homes. For more information on this, or to work for the charity, go to www.starandgarter.org