'Sending love to care homes' - a mass project in St Albans and beyond
- debbiethrower0
- 2 days ago
- 2 min read
Once again, St Albans Anna Chaplain Maggie Dodd and her team have pulled out all the stops to help make care home residents at 25 different establishments feel cherished over the festive season. In her December community newsletter she explained what the theme was this Christmas:
'Hello friends, I thought I’d share what I’ve been up to this month as we prepare for Christmas.
I wanted to start by thanking so many of you for contributing to the Christmas ‘Sending love to care homes’ stockings project. I was given so many beautiful creations, made with love and care.
This year the project exceeded all my expectations and I collected together over 1,300 stockings and Christmas booties.
Twelve churches across St Albans, plus two Brownie packs, knitted, sewed and decorated the gifts. Before I began the big wrap, I laid them out on the hall floor at HMRC and took a picture, as a reminder of just how many gifts were created.
The image shows the stocking-shape I created along with a couple of little helpers Orla and Grace who kept me company while I was laying them out (very helpfully, having them pictured alongside the giant stocking helps to gauge the scale of the picture).
Preparing the stockings for dispatching was a project in itself. I had help preparing the gifts and the cards enclosed with them, by kind folk at Chatterbox, Chance to Chat, and Hatfield Road’s Tuesday Cuppa, with wrapping undertaken by the usual ‘St Stephen’s Stuffers’ who have helped me these past four years,
This year, as we had so many gifts, I was able to deliver the stockings to care homes beyond St Albans, including homes in Redbourn, Shenley, Radlett, Hatfield, Welwyn and Harpenden. In the end I gave them to a record 25 care homes.
One of the great joys of Advent and Christmas is all the special services I organise and share with other churches. Working together with SS Alban and Stephen RC church's musicians and singers, I led carols at two care homes and a residential home for adults with learning disabilities, which was a particularly special service. Overall I shared eleven carol services at different care homes and in sheltered housing. It’s a privilege to celebrate this very special time of year with the residents and church members I work with...
May I take this opportunity to wish you all a Christmas filled with joy and Christ’s peace, and may every blessing be yours in 2026.'
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What a magnificent project this has been and so well coordinated. This is how the local paper - the St Albans Times - reported on this phenomenal community effort: https://stalbanstimes.co.uk/st-albans/christmas-all-knitted-up-for-st-albans-care-home-residents/
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