Music is the most wonderful Christmas gift for a person with dementia, his family and the care giver. Because the right music activate memories and at that moment the person with dementia is connected with himself, withhis surrounding and with us. Contact through the dementia fog.
A good filled dementia Christmas playlist can also be your Christmas life saver as it can reduce unrest, problem behaviour and run away urge. So make a Christmas playlist for the person with dementia. Fill this list with Christmas songs the person with dementia has heard between his 15 and 25 years.
Why between his 15-25 years? Because all the music we have heard between our 15 and 25 years is so deeply rooted in our brain that even dementia cannot destroy these music memories.
So find the Christmas songs which were popular in the 15-25 period of the person with dementia. Think about the songs sung at school, at home, in church or heard on radio or television in that time.
Use YouTube, Spotify or google. Type in “popular Christmas songs of….”fill in the year give an enter, there you have the songs you are looking for.
Enjoy your musical sleigh ride, and as a real Rudolph dementia reindeer, you guide the person with dementia with patience, love and compassion to a great Christmas playlist which brings back Christmas memories.
Happy holidays while the merry bells keep ringing……………….