Some favorite senior activities at this time of year center around the fall holidays, especially Halloween. Autumn already brings exciting things to do, like visiting apple orchards and going for a drive with the family to see the changing leaves. Preparing for Halloween only adds to the fun and anticipation of the season.

Shady Oaks understands the importance of assisted living and staying active. Here are five senior fall activities that residents can take on with staff or family.

Create Holiday Crafts

Holiday festivities for seniors give older people who may have a lot of time on their hands something to look forward to each season. Creating decorations for Halloween is no exception, and holiday crafts can be simple or complex, depending on each senior’s physical and cognitive abilities. Here are just a few examples:

• Adding felt eyes, nose, and a hat to a pinecone to create a not-so-scary witch for Halloween.
• Paint a face on a pumpkin. Seniors can skip the mess of carving a regular pumpkin.
• Create a black cat using an empty toilet paper roll, taking care to bend one end of the roll inward to create the cat’s ears. After coloring or painting the paper roll black, add pipe cleaners for the tail and whiskers.

Have a Costume Contest

There is no age limit to having fun dressing in a Halloween costume. Shopping for a costume or creating one from scratch is a good way to enhance cognitive skills, while the fun and laughs from the event help to lift seniors’ moods. Caregivers just need to ensure that seniors can safely and comfortably wear a costume for a few hours.

Make Care Packages for Young Trick-or-Treaters

Halloween is a highlight of the year for many kids who plan their costumes and trick-or-treating route for months. Receiving a care package from a grandparent or other relative makes the holiday all the more exciting for them. Sending candy, a Halloween card, or pieces to create a costume is fun for older people and makes the younger people receiving the care package feel extra special.

Ask Seniors to Share Ghost Stories from Their Childhood

Many seniors feel nostalgic about a time in life when they were young and more carefree. Since they already love to tell stories, why not ask them to share any ghost stories they can remember from decades past? It is fun for younger people to hear how spooky stories have changed over the years.

Bake Some Halloween-Themed Cookies

When it comes to senior living fall activities, it’s hard to go wrong with baking cookies. Staff or family can get some pumpkin, witch, cat, and other Halloween-themed cookie cutters ahead of time and allow seniors to take on as much of the preparation as they can. However, someone else should operate the oven for safety’s sake.

The staff at Shady Oaks Assisted Living wishes residents and their families a Happy Halloween.