Unique Holidays to Celebrate

Now that the craziness of the holidays are behind you as Activities Director in your retirement community, it is time to start thinking ahead. How will you make 2012 special for the seniors that live in your community?

One of the ideas that my company mandates is to have special theme nights at least 6 times a year. To me, that is perfect because it takes about that long to get everything organized for a theme party. Take a look at my postings on this blog about theme parties for some new ideas. I would love to hear what you are doing too, so please feel free to comment below so that we can all learn from one another. After being an activities director for 24 years, it is always nice to find some new ideas and I use the web a lot.

This year I am doing some of the "old time favorites," such as Chinese New Year, Mardi Gras, Safari. etc. But, I am also adding in a few new ideas to my list! The new ones that I will be doing are "A Night in Havana" and "Old Hollywood." (I've done Hollywood, movie and Breakfast at Tiffany's before, but this will have a new twist.) Check back on the blog as they year goes on and I'll share ideas and pictures of these new theme parties.

I also like to throw in a few smaller events onto my calendar, that make people simply have a reason to dress differently, eat differently, or give the residents a new subject to talk about or an idea for me to program a special movie, lecture, demonstration, etc. Examples of this might be Crazy Sock day, Wildflower Week, Honey Month, etc. I found a great website for these special days. Check it out. There is more to the site also that is worth looking at.

Take a few minutes, read the list of unique holidays over and deceid what you think would work best in our community, and then write them on your calendar! When the time comes closer, you can move ahead with the idea or skip it.....and know one but you will know.

ps. Take a look at my other theme ideas listed in the category listed on the left or start at Thinking About Themes.

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