Staff at a care home in Bradwell-on-Sea have been busy organising a range of festive activities to make this festive season extra special for residents.

The festive activities encourage residents at Down Hall Residential Care Home to spend quality time with each other and aim to raise their spirits during the pandemic.

Louise Simon, activities coordinator at Down Hall, said: "Everyone gets very excited on the run-up to Christmas.

"We've had fun decorating the Christmas tree, crafting homemade Christmas cards for the residents to send to their families and making festive table mats to use on Christmas Day.

"The group activities are a lot of fun and residents sit and chat while they're crafting, so it's a very social occasion.

"We also make sure to spend some quality time one-on-one with residents.

"Resident Lillian is very creative and loves making things from scratch.

"Senior care assistant Claire helped her to make traditional Christingles, an activity that brought back lots of fond memories of past Christmases.

"This week, I sat down with Lilian, and we made Christmas wreaths to hang around the care home. We baked slices of oranges to use on the wreaths, so everywhere smelt divine."

Down Hall is a 36-bed residential care home on Downhall Road set in landscaped gardens, including a sensory garden, herb garden and a raised-bed allotment where residents can grow their own vegetables.

Karen Johnson, care manager at Down Hall, said: "Our residents love the festivities at this time of year and we wanted to make sure they didn't feel left out due to the restrictions.

"All of the staff have gone out of their way to make it extra special for our residents.

"Making sure that everyone feels included in the celebrations is so important, as it can have such a huge impact on their wellbeing.

"By arranging lots of activities over the Christmas period, we help to keep our residents entertained and spread some festive cheer – something that's much needed this year."

Staff and residents are looking forward to Christmas Day, which will start with Santa and his elves handing out presents.

Everyone will sit down together for lunch, including the staff on duty, and residents will enjoy Buck's Fizz, wine or sherry.