Roisin, who is a Service Manager within one of our children’s residential houses, shares Christmas Day plans and one young person explains what made Christmas special.
Roisin has worked at Kibble for over 10 years and understands Christmas Day is an important date in the calendar and has always been determined to make it a memorable celebration for both the adults and kids.
The team at Kibble understand they’re essential workers and that their careers at Kibble involve alternating between working Christmas Day and New Year’s Eve. It’s a happy time and many across Kibble who aren’t working embrace the happy day and come along to join in.
Roisin shares Christmas preparations start as early as September: “We alternate who is working at Christmas each year but even if we have the day off, most of us pop in for a cup of tea and catch-up anyway. We like to have the chance to wish one another Merry Christmas as we spend so long planning the day.
“We start talking about Christmas in September, both adults and kids plan how to make the day special. As there’s a big build-up to the day and so much time has been spent chatting about the celebrations, we all want to spend Christmas morning together.
“The team try and go above and beyond for young people at Christmas. It’s not just one day we plan for, instead, we plan a huge build-up with plenty of fun activities and events to get us in the festive spirit and bring the magic of Christmas.
“Our traditions include decorating the Christmas tree and putting up decorations in our cosy Christmas jammies and making our own party crackers. We baked a Maltesers Christmas cake too. There are outings to the Panto, Christmas markets and ice-skating. This year, we went to see Wicked at the Edinburgh Playhouse, which everyone was in awe at – the costumes, music and the city was lovely at this time of year.”
One young person shared: “I can see the adults around me here are happy when I’m happy. They know me so well and make Christmas personal to me, they have remembered what I’ve said throughout the year when making plans on how we’ll celebrate and I can tell they’ve chosen my presents, knowing they’ve thought of me with those wee extras make Christmas special to me.”
Roisin said: “Young people can picture what Christmas Day will be like and are happy to wake-up here before some visit their families. My own wee dog, Suki is part of the team and her name is even on the Christmas tree. Suki gave everyone cuddles on Christmas morning. As soon as young people woke-up, we opened presents and sat together, laughing. Our living room and kitchen is open plan so there is always plenty of room for everyone to join in and chat.”