Looking back over the festive season

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Monday marked the 12th Day of Christmas and the end of the festive season. NLC volunteers have been busy returning to the homes of the older people who were part of our Christmas project in which we decorated Christmas trees, delivered hampers and helped spread a little festive cheer to older people who were alone at Christmas.

While many of us travelled to visit friends and family or hosted gatherings for our loved ones, many lonely and isolated older people spent the festive season alone.

To try to bring a little festive cheer to them and to provide older people in our local community with a little companionship, in the run-up to Christmas NLC volunteers visited the homes of some older people to decorate a Christmas tree for them and to have a chat over a mince pie.

This is how some of our older neighbours reacted to their trees:

Pat said “I didn’t want to think about Christmas, but it’s a beautiful tree. It’s cheered me up. I’d like to keep it up all year.”

Tommy: “It feels like Father Christmas has arrived.”

And Leslie said that this was the first Christmas tree he has had since he retired. He loved it so much that he’ll be storing it for next year.

Our volunteers also decorated Angie’s living room as a tree would have been too much temptation for her three cats, and the common room of a sheltered housing complex in Finsbury Park. Joey brought her son Jerry along to help out; here he is proudly admiring his handiwork:

We were also thrilled to have a number of hampers donated to us, which were given to older people in our local community. Islington Pensioners’ Forum and Islington Metropolitan Police delivered hampers to the homes of older people who may be alone over Christmas. And St Aloysius school delivered twenty beautifully decorated hampers to our film and lunch club just before Christmas and even delighted everyone with a Christmas carol.

It was lovely to see such community spirit over the festive season and to see volunteers bring so much cheer to their older neighbours.

If you'd like to start 2014 by supporting your older neighbours in this way, just sign up!