The holidays are a time for joy and celebration with your closest friends and family. It’s often the most cheerful time of the year.
However, this isn’t the case for everyone. For some, the holidays are a difficult time. This is due to many reasons, but one main reason is due to health. Having to visit the doctor or is never fun, especially if it’s during the holiday season.
It’s even more difficult for those who are staying in a hospital. These patients miss out on all of their holiday traditions and time with their families.
Well, there are ways that your practice or hospital can bring the holiday spirit to your patients. Before moving further in this blog post realize that it’s important to consider your patient demographic.
Some patients celebrate different holidays. Keep their traditions and beliefs in mind as you consider options for holiday cheer so that you can include everyone in some way.
Here are some simple ways to celebrate the holidays at your healthcare organization.
Spreading Holiday Cheer with Any Healthcare Organization
Decorate Everywhere
Decorating is one of the easiest ways to spread holiday cheer. There are so many ways to decorate such as lights, trees, wreaths, artificial snow and snowmen, reindeer figures, and more.
Healthcare organizations are sometimes a dreary place. Making them appealing with holiday decor is a great way to light up the office to make visits more exciting. But ensure decorations are sanitary especially if patients would touch them.
Every year there’s always a massive debate about the “perfect” time to start decorating for the holidays. If you’re considering decorating your healthcare organization, this debate will be even more passionate between your employees.
To make this argument a little bit easier know that experts say that people who put up holiday decorations sooner are happier.
Cards and Small Gifts
Sending holiday cards to your patients is another great way to spread cheer. This shows that you appreciate and value them. Your organization wouldn’t function without your patients, so any acknowledgment is important.
These don’t need to be Christmas cards. Again, keep your demographic in mind. There are so many holiday-themed cards. Even a simple thank you card to express your gratitude and send them best wishes is a nice gesture.
Take this even further by providing them a small gift. For example, toothbrushes at a dental practice or small holiday-themed toys as a pediatrician are thoughtful.
It may be expensive to give out small gifts to all of your patients, though. A more affordable option is a raffle for a gift basket. Any patients that visit your office during the season could have the chance to win. This could help attract patients into the office if they’re due for an appointment.
Festive Attire
Most people have heard of Ugly Christmas Sweaters. They don’t need to be Christmas but can be any holiday or winter-themed. Have your employees wear Ugly Festive Scrubs throughout the holiday season.
Maybe even set a date for a competition among staff. Include participation from your patients by asking them for ideas on what to wear. Fun competitions like these increase the morale of your workforce while being more welcoming to patients. Plus your staff might surprise you with their creativity sparked by this kind of competition.
If your pediatrician it will also help make employees seem less intimidating, especially to children since the doctor’s office can be scary.
Snacks and Treats
The holidays are the biggest time for snacking and having treats. All of this overeating might be the reason why almost 20% of Americans set getting in shape as their New Year’s resolution. But that doesn’t mean you can’t give treats to patients. It’s the holidays, after all.
Some practices already pass out lollipops to children after their visits. Substitute these for festive treats such as candy canes, chocolate Santas, or cookies during this time. These also appeal to adults, so any healthcare organization could use this tip.
Make sure your organization is aware of the ingredients in these snacks or treats, though. You don’t need any allergic reactions from this bit of holiday cheer. Offer another option to patients who have common allergens such as nuts, dairy, or gluten.
Holiday Music
If your organization already plays music, swap it out for holiday music stations. If you don’t already play music, consider doing so in common areas such as waiting rooms and hallways.
Listening to music helps with relaxation, and festive music is a fun, nostalgic option. In fact, the nostalgia triggered by holiday music can instill a lot of psychological benefits in your patients.
But keep in mind, too much of this music gets annoying if it’s repetitive, so switch up the stations for a variety.
Festive Movies in The Waiting Room
Patients don’t feel like they’re waiting as long in an active environment if they have something to do.
Televisions help keep patients entertained while they wait. Many waiting rooms and some patient rooms already have a TV.
Some channels will have holiday movie marathons or shows, so play these channels to spread some extra cheer. This is more exciting than standard talk-shows and news channels, and most holiday shows are appropriate for all ages.
Sharing the Holiday Spirit with Long-Term Patients
The holidays are often a difficult time for those in long-term care facilities such as hospitals or nursing homes. Some are unable to go home during the holiday season, or some don’t have anyone to visit them.
This is why it’s important to make this time special for them. There are many ways to spread cheer to these patients, too.
Encouraging Decoration Participation
Again, decorations are a great way to spread holiday cheer. But it’s even more important in facilities where patients spend a lot of time - not only an hour out of their day. They can’t go home to their decorated house, so bring cheer to them instead.
Include your patients in the decorating process. If your organization puts up a Christmas tree, allow patients to hang ornaments. You can also have a day where the patients make ornaments for the tree. This brings us to our next suggestion.
Holiday Crafting Class
Long-term patients already miss out on activities in general, but it’s more upsetting to miss out on holiday fun. Crafts are activities that your patients can take part in to stay optimistic and feel uplifted.
One craft can be painting wooden ornaments, decorating bulbs, or making origami ornaments to decorate the tree. It’s exciting if they can contribute to the decorations that everyone here will see every day.
Another option could be making hats and headbands for the winter. Since this may be a more difficult project, you can have some of your staff make this craft with patients.
Cookie baking is also fun and festive during this time. Everyone loves seasonal treats. Actually baking with patients is difficult, especially with contagious patients.
But an alternative could be cookie decorating or building gingerbread houses. That way, patients don’t spread germs because they each keep their own.
There are so many holiday craft ideas online. Pinterest is a great resource for finding crafts for any age group.
Hospital Holiday Cards
Holiday cards for this group is a little different than any health care practice. Since these patients are already at the long-term care facility, you don’t need to send them a card.
This is another craft option. You can have your patients make holiday cards to send to their loved ones or to other patients in the hospital.
But some patients don’t have loved ones to send cards to. This also means that they won’t receive cards in return. Have your staff make holiday cards for the patients, or partner with a local organization such as a school to make cards.
Special Visitors and Carolers
Just as some patients don’t have anyone to send them cards, they might not have anyone to visit. This time of the year feels especially lonely for these patients.
Organize visitors so that your patients feel cared for during the holidays. Some schools will partner with children’s hospitals or nursing homes to visit patients.
Christmas carolers are also a great option to visit. Long-term patients, especially nursing home residents, aren’t always able to interact with the outside world.
Every year a radio station in South New Jersey, 96.9 WFPG Lite Rock, holds a special caroling event call the Christmas Caroling Nusing Home Tour. They’ll get participants together and visit multiple nursing homes in a day to spread holiday cheer through song.
Not all patients are alone during the holidays. Many will have families who will come visit. There are ways your organization can make these visits more joyful for both the patients and their visitors. Below are some ideas to do with or without visitors.
Santa Visits for Families
An important visitor for children during this time is Santa. So many children go somewhere to visit Santa, but if they are in the hospital this isn’t possible. Make arrangements to have a guest dressed as Santa visit your hospital. Set up an area for photos, or host a breakfast with Santa for patients and their families to enjoy.
In 2018, Make-A-Wish Colorado hosted a Holiday Wish Store at Children’s Hospital Colorado. During this event, children at the hospital with critical illnesses could select and wrap gifts for their friends and family.
Shriners Hospital for Children is taking a slightly different approach. Instead of bringing Santa to the hospital, he will visit the children via telehealth. This is the same technology that hospitals use to connect medical professionals with patients that are unable to visit in person.
This way, patients at each of the four Shriners Hospitals have the chance to see Santa. The hospitals are decorating for the season to resemble a winter wonderland. Each child will also receive a gift bag from Santa. More than 100 children will take part in these virtual visits.
A Holiday Feast in The Cafeteria
The holidays usually consist of fancy meals and feasts. This isn’t the case for patients, especially if they stay through the whole holiday season. To change this, host a holiday feast for them during this special season.
Your organization can have a catered feast for the patients since they’ll get sick of hospital food after a while. Go an extra step by asking patients if there are any dishes they have around the holidays, and try to include these.
This event can include family or friends of patients too. If your facility can’t budget for this many people, families or friends could pay for tickets to attend.
Cheerful Games and Festivities
There are many games you could organize for patients to play during the holidays.
One game that children, in particular, would enjoy is a snowball fight. There are safety and health concerns for doing this outside, but your facility could have an indoor version of this game. Many retail stores sell soft plush snowballs to use to simulate a safe indoor snowball fight.
Holiday Movie Night
This is another idea that is fun for a group of patients but can also include their visitors. This activity is enjoyable for any age group. Include holiday snacks or treats, such as cookies and hot chocolate, to make this more special.
You could piggyback this idea with the one above. While holding these events maybe also play a few rounds of festive movie trivia.
Gift Giving and Secret Santa
Gifts are a huge part of this holiday season. Keep in mind religious demographics, because patients have different gift-giving traditions. Do something special for anyone who celebrates a different holiday.
Buying a gift for every patient during this time isn’t realistic. But you could partner with a local group who could sponsor patients and buy gifts for them.
Many organizations do something similar during the holidays. Delaware City community members help hospital residents through Adopt-A-Resident. Sponsors receive the wish list of a patient, then buy and deliver the items in gift bags.
An annual 911 Gives Hope for the holidays toy drive collects new donated toys in Evansville, Indiana. These are then donated to Ascension-St. Vincent’s, Deaconess, Evansville Psychiatric Children’s Hospital and the Ronald McDonald House.
Organizations like these help hospitals across the country provide holiday spirit for patients. Even if they don’t celebrate a particular holiday, it’s nice for them to know that people care for and remember them.
Conclusion
This time of the year usually has a happy connotation for most people. It’s a time with family and friends, celebrating different holidays, and participating in so many fun activities.
But this isn’t the case for everyone. Doctor visits can be an inconvenience in our busy holiday schedules. Patients may even fear bad news for their health.
Many long-term patients can’t be home during the holidays. For patients who have no one to visit, this happy time for everyone else seems more lonely for them.
Healthcare practices can still spread joy to their patients, though. There are so many ways to bring holiday cheer right to the health facility. These little steps can go a long way.
