This year at Lulworth House Residential Care Home we had a fantastic ‘Magical Halloween’ party which included reading about the history of Halloween, theatre fun with puppets and a poem, Trick or Treat crafts and entertainment from a visiting Magician.
We had fun dressing our Home with themed Halloween decorations and we kicked the party off with some Halloween music and a reading about the history of Halloween and religion relating to it.
A Halloween Wedding
For a bit of fun, we then introduced a ‘Halloween Wedding’ theme using our Witch and Frankenstein puppets. We read the poem below and played the Wedding March as we pretended to walk the puppets down the aisle. We also played with luminous balloons to celebrate their wedding reception!
Witch to marry Frankenstein. . . .
Witch:
I laugh and I cackle
I’ll demolish your tackle
I’m really quite a bitch
I’m a wicked old witchBut am I really bad
Or really rather sad
I moan and I groan
Coz I feel quite aloneFrankenstein:
Hi there Witch
I’m really rather rich
Frankenstein’s my name – you can call me Frank
I’d pay to marry you – I’ll let you clear out my BankThere’s something rather special
Of a wart that’s like a freckle
If you haven’t any ties
Can I admire your enlightening eyes?Witch:
Oh Frank you are funny
You make me feel so sunny
I was feeling a bit dead
But now I’m up for getting wedWhat happened to your hair
Bald is rather bare
It would be rude of me to stare
But I rather like your flareFrankenstein:
Oh Witch I do love you
Would you say ‘I do’
Wedding bells would be such bliss
I’ll wait for your black teethed kissI promise to be your dream come true
I’ll make you feel as good as new
Bring your cauldron, cat and mice
I breed my very own lice!Witch:
My wretched heart belongs to you
Yes is my answer you gorgeous old fool
You’re handsome, you’re bold
Never again will I feel oldCome on Frank let’s wed and dance
How about flying off to France
A Honeymoon will be quite fun
Let’s elope and fly into the sun
During the party we played ‘Pass the Pumpkin’ (as opposed to pass the parcel!) which delighted our residents with some surprise Halloween presents to keep. This game really engaged our residents and also their visiting grandchildren.
Trick or Treat came in the form of a pipe-cleaner spider and a small decorated pumpkin, which we had made in our craft group. I placed them in a small soup saucepan and named it ‘Pumpkin and Spider Soup’. The trick, I explained, was that there was no soup!
We were thrilled to welcome Marco the Magician to Lulworth House for our party. He came in to entertain us with a fantastic selection of magic tricks, which included a very cute rabbit in a hat! We had lots of fun and laughter with him.
The event was rounded off with afternoon snacks and chocolate treats from our Halloween bucket – yum!
Sensory activities
As part of the Halloween fun we also engaged our residents in sensory activities. We created a sensory room by blocking out light and adding red twilight lights to create relaxing lighting for Halloween. Sensory items were varied, as were the lights – some flickered, some were relaxing and some gently changed in colour (eg luminous balloons). We also played some relaxing classical music.
One of our gentleman had a father who worked on the ships, so we created a flickering lamp to replicate the lights flickering when the sea was choppy. We talked about his father’s job and he engaged fully in conversation, which was lovely to hear.
We used a tea light to light up the inside of one of our lady’s pumpkins that she had made – it replicated a real candle inside a pumpkin, which made her smile. Another of our ladies loves cats, so we chose a silky, furry animal-shaped item and discussed the names of her cats and what she remembered about them, which made her laugh.
We all thoroughly enjoyed our day of Halloween fun – thank you to everyone who helped to make the day so magical!
