Home Instead launches second Santa-gram campaign to help bring some festive cheer to the elderly!

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Home Instead are asking children in local primary schools to join their second Santa-gram campaign by using their creative talents to design Christmas cards for elderly people in Calderdale.

Read this on the Home Instead webpage

Deadline to send your Santa-gram is December 3rd

Last year’s campaign was a fantastic success with over 1,000 Santa-grams delivered to more than 500 older people: both those still living at home and some care home residents.

According to Age UK, Christmas is the loneliest time of the year for over 1.5 million older people, with those who have lost a loved one struggling the most.

After this most difficult of years with many clubs and church groups still cautious about meeting, this provider of home care to the elderly and the vulnerable decided to repeat their campaign to help relieve some of the loneliness felt by many elderly people across our community.

The Santa-gram campaign involves children at local primary schools creating Christmas cards, drawings, bookmarks, puzzles or writing a letter to an older person to open in the run up to Christmas to help bring a smile to their day.  The Santa-grams will be delivered to elderly people during the first two weeks of December.

Home Instead Senior Care Calderdale will be working in partnership with local community groups and charities such as Age UK, Memory Lane Dementia cafes, local care homes and assisted living facilities for the elderly to deliver the Santa-grams in time for Christmas.

Munaf Patel, Director at Home Instead Calderdale said:

“Since the reopening from lockdown in July, many of the community groups which serve the elderly have still not restarted their meetings and as result a lot of older people are missing out on the companionship, care and love that many of us simply take for granted.  We wanted to do something to help out and this is a nice way to bring two different generations together.”

Here is one of the many comments we received last year about the campaign:

“Thank you so much for arranging for these (Santa-grams) to be sent out to us. The cards are so good with lovely artwork by the children.  It has really cheered us both up.  When we opened up the surprise we both got a very warm feeling inside and it really did make us smile.  The jokes had us both laughing.”

Home Instead are accepting items to be included in the ‘Santa-grams’ from now until 3 December   If your organisation, church or community group would like to receive Santa-grams, contact Julie Ingham, Community Engagement Officer at Home Instead Senior Care Calderdale on 01422 292424 or email Julie.ingham@homeinstead.co.uk

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