Woking Care Home gave residents a Christmas full of festive joy & happiness

The care team at Bernard Sunley, our Woking-based residential, nursing and dementia care home, sprinkled themselves with Christmas Fairy Dust to make sure they delivered a Christmas full of fun, happiness and festive joy for all the residents, and members of the local community.

The Christmas frivolities began at the beginning of December with a Yuletide host of activities and outings for the residents to enjoy.

“In the run up to Christmas Day, we wanted to ensure that the residents were engaged in a wide selection of festive activities, to get the Christmas Spirit underway,” said Andy Cumper, the Registered Manager at Bernard Sunley.

“Our existing calendar of meaningful and tailored activities was given a sprinkling of Christmas Magic to include additional seasonal treats and community events,” added Monika Ahmed, one of the care home’s Activities Coordinator.

“One of our first festive adventures was an armchair travel trip to Lapland,” continued Monika. “Of course, Lapland is Santa’s home, but we all found out many more fun and interesting facts about the beautiful region – firstly that it is a region of Scandinavia and not actually a country! “The residents were enthralled and thoroughly enjoyed the trip from the comfort of their favourite armchairs and were amazed to learn that Lapland has more Reindeer than people – just over 200,000 Reindeer compared to 178,000 humans! Amongst all the ‘Ho-Ho-Ho-Happy’ activities, residents also enjoyed musical entertainment afternoons, Christmas baking sessions, festive painting and flower arranging classes, Carol singing and a very exclusive Carol concert performed by the Bernard Sunley care team.

“We also arranged for residents to visit Woking’s New Victoria Theatre for a Christmas tradition – to see the thigh-slapping fantastic Christmas pantomime, Snow White and The Seven Dwarfs,” added Andy. “Everyone had a brilliant time watching TVs Birds of a Feather star Lesley Joseph as The Wicked Queen, and Broadcaster and Barrister Rob Rinder as The Man in the Mirror and getting involved with the classic panto boos, hoorays and, of course – ‘He’s behind you’.”

“We also had our very own Santa’s Grotto especially for the residents, their families and friends,” continued Monika. “As Santa was so busy, two of our residents, Geoff and Helen Harrold stepped in and transformed into Father Christmas and Mrs Claus for the day.”

“As part of our lasting and unbroken commitment to keep the residents we support and care for involved with their local community, we hosted our annual Community Christmas Day celebration. We invited the older people of pensionable age who live in and around Woking to join us and be our guest at our free Christmas Day event, which was full of entertainment, company, conversations, singing and, of course, a delicious Christmas lunch – with all the trimmings – and an afternoon full of Yuletide fun, mince pies, popcorn, sherry and a great Christmas film – Miracle on 34th Street. “Alongside the residents, their families and loved ones, we had nine members of our local community join us for the Community Christmas Day celebrations,” added Andy. “

Everyone had a marvellous time, and one guest wrote to us after the event to say thank us for the wonderful Christmas lunch and for all the kindness of the Bernard Sunley team. They said they felt very welcome and loved playing bowls with the residents and that Joe, the Musician who performed during the afternoon, was excellent. It was really wonderful to hear that they’d had a fantastic time.”

“To ring in 2026 in style, we hosted a free Community New Year’s Eve Jazz Café morning,” continued Monika. “The residents are keen Jazz fans and definitely know their Louis Armstrong tunes from their Nat King Cole songs. “We host our very popular jazz-tastic Jazz Café events throughout the year, so to have a Bernard Sunley Jazz Speakeasy on New Year’s Eve was a perfect way to round off 2025.”

“The smooth jazz ambience and atmosphere was pitch perfect, and with an array of delectable canapés, sweet treats and mouth-watering cocktails and mocktails, the Bernard Sunley Community New Year’s Eve Jazz Café was a great success that everyone enjoyed immensely and agreed it was the ideal way to welcome 2026,” concluded Andy.

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