Home Instead are accepting items to be included in the ‘Santa-grams’ until 2nd December. If your organisation, church or community group would like to receive Santa-grams, or if you are a school or organisation would like to get involved, contact Julie Ingham on 01422 292424 or email julie.ingham@homeinstead.co.uk

Home Instead Calderdale’s annual Santa-gram Christmas gifting scheme has launched to give older people something to smile about during the festive season and help alleviate loneliness.

Children’s Christmas Cards

The team at Home Instead Calderdale are working with seven primary schools across Halifax, Sowerby Bridge and Brighouse, one after-school club and two Calderdale knitting groups to make gifts. The children will be putting their creative talent to good use, designing Christmas cards and decorations and the older children will be writing letters to donate to older people across Calderdale.

Local community group, The Calder Quilters and the Knit & Natter Group at St. Andrews Methodist Church in Halifax were delighted to get involved in this year’s Christmas Santa-gram campaign, creating some much needed quilted blankets and knitted muffs for older people to help keep them warm this winter. Last year Home Instead received 1,452 Santa-grams and the team hopes to smash that record this year!

Quilts and Twiddle Muffs from Calder Quilters

Every year Home Instead receive many heart-warming comments from members of the elderly community on receiving their Santa-grams.  One such comment was: “Thank you so much for the Santa-gram I received just before Christmas. Being a pensioner living on my own with no family it brightened my day it means a lot to know that there are kind people out there who want to support ageing people in the community this winter. I hadn’t heard of Home Instead so who knows in the future you may be someone to turn to, if needed.”

Since starting the campaign two years ago during the COVID pandemic lockdown, Home Instead has delivered thousands of Santa-grams to members of the local community.

Commenting on the festive campaign, owner of Home Instead Calderdale Munaf Patel said, “A lot of older people in the community are missing out on the companionship, care, and love that many of us simply take for granted. We want to do something to help, and the campaign is a nice way to bring several different generations together.”

Calder Quilters meet fortnightly at The Maurice Jagger Centre, Halifax and their Chairperson commented, “We heard about Home Instead’s Santa-gram Campaign and approached them to see how we might get involved.  As a result our members have been busy creating quilted lap blankets, backed with fleece to help elderly people stay warm this winter and a set of Twiddle Muffs which make great presents for people with dementia, who find it comforting to keep their hands and fingers occupied.”

Margaret Caulfield of the Knit & Natter Group at St. Andrew’s Methodist Church, Huddersfield Road, Halifax, said, “Given the worrying Cost of Living Crisis, we wanted to do something to help some of the people who will be worrying about their heating costs this winter.  We welcomed the chance to get involved with Home Instead’s Santa-gram campaign and our members have been busy creating warm blankets and muffs for the elderly.”

Home Instead are accepting items to be included in the ‘Santa-grams’ until 2nd December. If your organisation, church or community group would like to receive Santa-grams, or if you are a school or organisation would like to get involved, contact Julie Ingham on 01422 292424 or email julie.ingham@homeinstead.co.uk