Age UK activity pack

12 page activity pack for December 2020 sent by Age UK Hillingdon, Harrow and Brent, on the theme of Christmas, containing a letter about Margaret Keenan’s first vaccine COVID-19 dose, craft activity making yule pomanders, puzzle, colouring in sheets, Members Message Board, information about Christmas around the world, crosswords and word search, television highlights, craft activity making a Christmas tree decoration, compiled by Social Wellbeing team, during the COVID-19 pandemic, 2020

Beginning in summer 2020, the Social Wellbeing Team at Age UK Hillingdon, Harrow and Brent announced the start of their support package through monthly activity packs.

The seventh pack shows the fast changing rules for Christmas 2020 prior warning people not to hug and kiss family members as “life is precious.” Originally, the UK government originally announced that three households would be able to come together to form a Christmas bubble between 23-27 December 2020. Some scientists questioned this approach, arguing that that increased social mixing could potentially trigger a third wave. Due to the spread of a more infectious variant of the coronavirus, Christmas bubbles were banned in London and the South East. Many other parts of England could only meet on Christmas Day. England went into lockdown at midnight on 4 January 2021 to attempt to control the virus.

The letter also celebrates the first dose of the UK’s COVID-19 vaccine roll out. Administered by Matron May Parsons, Margaret Keenan received her first COVID-19 vaccine on 8 December 2020. Margaret’s words are included in the letter “My advice to anyone offered the vaccine is to take it – if I can have it at 90, then you can have it too.” Recounting the Christian story of Christmas the letter ends with “So fear and very difficult times are noting new and, like the years after the first Christmas, we should be comforted that all will be well soon."

Each pack had a theme and related puzzles, recipes, information sheets, colouring in and ways to communicate with messages boards by post. Realising that many of their local community might struggle with or not have access to digital communication, packs were posted and offers of help with WhatsApp and Zoom were offered.