The residents of Hetherington House have been knitting up a storm in preparation for Christmas.
The Waihī rest home has been dressed up with hundreds of Christmas decorations, all hand-crafted by its residents and all made from yarn.
The decorations vary from trees laden with pompoms, to knitted wreaths, candles, stockings, and even a full Nativity scene.
There is a knitted gingerbread village in the main dining room, a stable of woolly reindeer, and miscellaneous Santas, teddies, and elves.
The pièce de résistance is a full-sized, fully-knitted Christmas tree, topped with an angel and adorned with Christmas lights both knitted and real.
Hetherington House’s diversion therapy team members, Carol and Raewyn, said the project has been a fun and heavily-attended activity for the residents.
“We came up with the idea in August… We just set up the [knitting] machines in the mornings and those that were out here just participated,” the women said.
The decorations evolved throughout the months, depending on what the residents produced.
“It actually started off with the Christmas tree, and then it just escalated,” they said.
“It went from the tree to the Nativity scene. And then it went from the Nativity scene to the gingerbread house. Then the staff got on board and everybody was knitting bits of chain.”
Most of the pieces were machine-made, but there were plenty of residents knitting or crocheting by hand as well – even some of the men got involved, Carol and Raewyn said.
“It was fun because it was creative and it was also just relaxing for some people. They liked to just sit and knit… I guess you could say it was kind of a therapy thing as well,” they said.
“We try to make [activities] as fun and exciting as we can for people – getting their involvement, not us just having an idea and running with it. It’s getting them to create, and challenging them as well.”
And the residents are thrilled with the outcome.
“It’s really cool because they had a part in it,” they said.
“They couldn’t always visualise what they were doing, but when you brought them what they’d made, you know, the smile on their faces because they’ve contributed to it.
“We might have to do something like this for other holidays as well.”
