Celebrating New Year’s with Seniors

New Year’s Eve brings with it a great deal of excitement. Friends and family gather to tuck away the negative memories of 2022 and usher in the good that is to come in 2023. Celebrating New Year’s with seniors is uniquely special. Throughout their lives, they saw many advances and changes. No two New Year’s have looked quite alike.

If you’re celebrating New Year’s with seniors, you may find yourself unsure of the proper way to enjoy the holiday with them. While older adults might not be inclined to stay up until the clock strikes midnight to ring in the New Year, there are still plenty of fun activities you can enjoy together.

Throw something away from 2022

No matter how good a year you’ve had, everyone has something they want to leave behind in 2022. Have your loved one write something down that they don’t want to bring into 2023. This could be an embarrassing memory, a bad habit, or something else that they wish to forget.

Once everyone has written down their thing, they can choose to read it aloud or keep it to themselves. Then, everyone will throw their slip of paper into the trash, symbolizing moving on.

Cook or eat foods for good luck

Did you know that many cultures eat specific dishes to celebrate the New Year? Spanish cultures eat 12 grapes at midnight, Scandinavian cultures eat rice pudding with an almond hidden inside, and southern states eat black eyed-peas.

Try this tradition with your elderly loved one. Research whether or not your culture has a New Year’s tradition such as this. Alternatively, you could collect ideas from cultures around the world and enjoy them all to hopefully start the year on the right foot.

Hold a mock countdown

Realistically, your elderly loved one will go to bed before the ball drops in Time Square. However, other time zones are ringing in the New Year as early as 3:00 am CST! Choose a time zone that works best with your loved one’s sleep schedule and hold a “mock countdown.”

You make an all-day event out of it with a series of countdowns of locations that are special to your elderly loved one. For example, you could celebrate the New Year in Beijing at 10:00 am CST, Baghdad at 3:00 pm, and London at 6:00 pm.

Set New Year’s resolutions

Setting New Year’s resolutions is the quintessential activity to do on December 31. Before you and your aging loved one set any plans, look back at your resolutions from last year (if you have them). What wasn’t completed, and why wasn’t it? Decide if you want to incorporate any of these resolutions into your list for 2023.

If you and your loved one are struggling to come up with any resolutions, consider these options.

• Resolutions for seniors: be more active, eat healthier, de-clutter the home, make sure all health records are up to date.
• Resolutions for caregivers: take more time for yourself, enjoy activities with your elderly loved one, do more of what makes you happy, practice mindfulness, establish healthy boundaries

Consider the help of a caregiver this New Year

Acting as a family caregiver is no easy task. Between your work life, personal life, and caregiving responsibilities, you may feel stretched thin. This is normal, and nothing to be ashamed about. Instead of stressing over your limited time, get help.

At Home Care Powered by AUAF, our compassionate caregivers assist seniors with the non-medical activities of daily living your elderly loved one struggles with. For more information on our services, call us at 773-274-9262.