Back in October, staff at The Old Rectory in Longhope, a luxury care home for dementia sufferers, devised an innovative way for their residents, and school children from around the county to come together for some festive cheer!

The Old Rectory Christmas Art competition tasked children of all ages across the three counties to design a festive bookmark- with the winner in each age category winning a giant tree for their school, and their bookmark made up professionally by a graphic design company, to share with friends and family.

Over 400 entries flew in from across Gloucestershire and Herefordshire, and last week, the residents of The Old Rectory donned their Christmas jumpers for a morning of judging. Bright colours, glitter, pom-poms, reindeer, elves and hundreds of other fantastic creative ideas spilled from the pages of entries and the judging proved quite contentious with designs of such quality!

Eventually, three art champions were crowned and giant Christmas trees were immediately shipped out to their schools by The Old Rectory elves to be decorated! George, aged four from Hope Brook Primary, Findlay, aged 8 from Lea Primary school and Emily, aged 12 from Hereford Cathedral were the worthy winners, with a special mention to The Downs Malvern where the children received three of the highly commended prizes. A huge well done to everyone.

Rosemary Halifax, the manager of The Old Rectory said “Creative stimulation is so important for the happiness and well being of dementia patients and the joy that this challenge brought, to all parties, was overwhelmingly heartwarming!” Watch this space for another competition soon!

The Old Rectory specialises in dementia care for the elderly. This hidden gem in the Gloucestershire countryside boasts state of the art healthcare, stunning surroundings and outstanding, deep relationships between residents and carers