Creating New Year Traditions with Your Senior Family Members
What are Common New Years Traditions?
A new year can be challenging for many people, not just seniors. Christmas and New Year can make a bereavement more painful, even if they passed some time ago, or make people think about broken relationships and estrangements. It’s no surprise then, that many people find the festive season difficult and look forward to it being over. The January blues is a recognised phenomenon too, when mid-winter kicks in and people are feeling that the cold, dark nights are never going to end. The third Monday of the month is even designated as ‘Blue Monday’, the day that is most likely to bring on feelings of depression and sluggishness. Festive season traditions differ from household to household but many people have things they love to do at New Year, whether that’s having a glass of champagne, singing songs with loved ones or watching familiar programmes on TV.
One way of making the new year easier to manage is by planning things in advance that will make January more enjoyable and give everyone things to look forward to. This means that the ‘January blues’ can be avoided by planning interesting new year activities for seniors. These include:
New Years Walks
Regular exercise can boost mental wellbeing, reduce stress and, according to Age UK, “even help to relieve depression”. Walking can be social too as senior walking groups often exist. This can help to tackle loneliness and social isolation and help you start the new year with a spring in your step.
New Year Meals and Pub Trips
Going out for something to eat can often make a pleasurable, social occasion out of something that would otherwise be a mundane part of every day. Eating with people you care about can help to combat isolation, so heading to a lovely country pub or city restaurant is many people’s idea of a great shared activity.
New Years Parties and Pre-parties
New Year’s Eve isn’t everyone’s idea of fun, especially where drinking and fireworks are concerned. However, it’s worth checking if any of your friends are feeling the same way so that you could plan an activity that suits you all better. What about attending a display of no-bang fireworks? Or spending time with family before the rest of their guests arrive?
New Year Film and Games Night
New year activity ideas don’t need to cost any money; for instance, what about watching favourite movies with like-minded people? So many streaming services have classic movies on all year round, or you may already have DVDs of all the films you love. Inviting friends or family around to enjoy a shared activity can really help to lift your mood.
New Years Drives
Even if the weather is cold and you don’t feel like being outdoors, you can still enjoy being driven to picturesque places with loved ones. Perhaps you don’t have your licence anymore, or you miss driving and the freedom that it allows. Asking family or friends to drive you all to somewhere that’s always meant a lot to you means you can also share precious memories.
New Year’s baking and cooking
If you’re a keen cook and miss having the freedom you once did in the kitchen, baking and cooking with loved ones can be a social activity that will ensure you remain safe. You can discuss recipes, share tasks and enjoy planning what you want to make, and then best of all you get to share eating everything that you’ve created!
Happy New Year From Helping Hands
Let Helping Hands help you to enjoy life at home. If you’ve been struggling with everyday tasks and you’re concerned that you’ll have to move out of the place you love, then visiting or live-in care may be just what you need. Our caregivers can support you with everything from housework, food preparation, and laundry to medication, personal care and mobility. Perhaps more importantly, though, they can provide you with essential companionship, making sure you aren’t at risk from social isolation. Visiting care can be with you for an hour or two a week, up to several visits per day, which often suits people who have family and friends regularly dropping by or have a little more ability. Live-in care however, will see someone living in your home with you around the clock, keeping you independent even when you don’t have loved ones living nearby. Chat to our friendly customer care team if you’d like to learn more about our home care services across England and Wales, all fully regulated by the Care Quality Commission and the Care Inspectorate Wales.
