Popular Activities at Holiday Retirement
Holiday Retirement communities offer a robust calendar of activities designed to stimulate the seven dimensions of wellness: physical, emotional, spiritual, intellectual, creative, social, and vocational. Engaged and active seniors lead richer, healthier, more satisfying lives — and science proves it. Here is some of the research backing the importance of an active and socially connected life in older age:
1. Lowers the risk of age-related conditions: Strong social support has been linked to lower inflammation in the body, which researchers believe plays a role in age-related conditions, such as Alzheimer’s Disease, arthritis, osteoporosis, some cancers, and cardiovascular disease.
2. Boosts memory performance: People over 80 with supportive social connections performed better than their less-social peers on episodic memory tasks. Performance of socially supported adults aged 80 plus was about the same as people who are middle aged.
3. Helps prevent depression: A strong social support system can be critical to good mental health. Research shows that activities like hobbies, social clubs, volunteering, and family gatherings are strong protective factors for depression in older adults.
4. Decreases risk of death from cancer: People with higher perceptions of social support may have a lower risk of dying from cancer than peers with poor social satisfaction, according to a 2018 study published in Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention journal.
Popular Holiday Retirement Activities
Living in an independent living community provides you with opportunities that support good health and social connections. A survey of 3,910 seniors found that those who lived in retirement communities were two to five times more likely than non-residents to engage in regular movement, social situations, and exercise. Studies also find that older people with good social support are more likely to engage in physically active leisure time.
At Holiday Retirement, our goal is to provide opportunities for you to participate in activities you enjoy, and discover new passions. Youchoose your level of participation. It’s your retirement, after all, and you have the freedom to focus on what’s most important to you.
Activities vary by community, but some examples of activities in our communities that help bring people together, get them moving and talking and, most importantly, provide a lot of laughs include:
Winter Games
Residents love our annual Winter Games. Favorite events include snow ball tosses, mummy races, snowman-building competitions, snowball fights, ping pong ball, and timed competitions in bean bag toss, ring toss, golfing, and pong in a cup. At the last Winter Games, residents at our Redwood Retirement Residence received edible gold medals made out of Vanilla Oreos and strips of Fruit by the Foot.
Arts and Crafts
Holiday Retirement independent living communities tend to be full of talented crafters. From water painting classes and knitting groups, to holiday crafts and creating magnets, there’s something for everyone!
Pool Noodle Hockey
Think foosball with real players and pool noodles. Residents are divided into two teams. Each team gets its own colored pool noodles. Team members sit in chairs on their designated side and try to get a ball through the other team’s goal.
Yarn Introductions
This is a great way to break the ice for new residents. In yarn introductions, one resident tosses a ball of yarn to another resident and introduces themself. That resident then tosses the yarn ball to a person who hasn’t introduced themself. The end result is a huge web of yarn that illustrates how we’re all connected and should support one another. If a single person pulls the yarn, it affects the entire yarn web and, if you cut it, the web falls apart.
Games
Our independent living residents love a little good-natured competition. Some of our most popular games include bingo, bean bag baseball, Wii football, balloon volleyball, and board games.
Movement
From fitness classes like yoga, chair fitness, and tai chi, to walking clubs and spontaneous strolls, our residents enjoy staying physically active.
Tell Your Story
Some senior living communities have a version of Tell Your Story. Each month a different resident shares their life story or a special talent with the community. For instance, a resident at Bear Canyon Estates has been involved in weaving, embroidery, sewing, and making yarn her entire life. She brought in her handmade loom and demonstrated how she weaves and how to spin wool to make yarn.
Man Cave
Our Fox Run Estates retirement community celebrated Men's Health Day by turning one of the activity rooms into a “Man Cave” -- no girls allowed! A classic red Shelby Cobra automobile sat on display in the front driveway. The day was complete with health education, activities, and fun snacks in the Man Cave.
Putt Putt
Some Holiday Retirement senior living communities do putt putt pop-up events, like putt putt in the Atrium. Residents must maneuver around obstacles like pumpkins, shoot pass the cat, then putt putt down to the toilet bowl. It always promises lots of laughs and some pretty good putters.
What Are Our Residents’ Favorite Activities?
Holiday Retirement calendars tend to be full of all kinds of activities, classes and events, but which ones are the residents’ favorites? We went straight to the source to find out which activities prove to be the perennial favorites at our Holiday Retirement senior living communities.
Check out this infographic to see what our residents love.
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