Christmas Festivities At City Hospitals

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30626, 17 December 1964, Page 16

Christmas Festivities At City Hospitals

Celebrations to mark Advent and Christmas are in full swing at hospitals in Christchurch. Most hospitals are already gaily decorated throughout for the occasion.

Groups from churches and other organisations are visiting the various hospitals to sing carols or provide the entertainment at Christmas parties, while at the larger | institutions and at many hospitals the nurses themselves are taking a hand in this. A traditional observance of Christmas in hospital which is to be followed at most city hospitals will be the procession of nurses through the wards holding candles and singing carols during one of the evenings of Christmas week. . Christchurch At the Christchurch Hospital, North Canterbury Hospital Board members and staff attended a service of nine lessons in the nurses’ chapel on Monday evening. Yesterday the nurses of the hospital held a Christmas tea-dance. Next Wednesday, a nurses’ group will present a nativity play in the chapel for the patients. On Christmas Eve, there will be a party in the Children’s ward about tea time, when Father Christmas is expected to visit, and in the evening the nursing staff

will sing carols through the hospital. On Christmas morning, gifts from the Hospital Lady Visitors’ Association will be distributed to all patients, and Christmas church services will be held.

Princess Margaret The first Christmas function at the Princess Margaret ■ Hospital was nurses’ dance ion December 9. A nativity 'play will be presented by the nursing staff for the patients !on Sunday, Monday, and Wedi nesday evenings. On Christimas Eve, the nursing staff iwill carol round the wards. (There will be services on Christmas Day. Burwood At the Burwood Hospital, a nativity play will be presented by the staff for patients on December 22. Father Christmas will visit the geriatric wards and child patients on December 23, and later that evening carols will be sung by candlelight by the nursing staff. On Christmas morning, gifts from the Hospital Lady Visitors’ Association will be given to all patients, and gifts from the Friends of the Burwood Hospital will be presented to children and old people. There will be Christmas services that morning. Coronation

There was a party for patients in the tuberculosis annexe at the Coronation Hospital last Thursday, and the party for geriatric patients

was held yesterday in conjunction with the hospital board’s afternoon tea function to commemorate the conversion of the main building to geriatric use. A staff Christmas party will be held tomorrow evening. There will be a general celebration of Christmas on Christmas morning. St. Helens The main pre-Christmas function at the St. Helens Hospital will be held on Tuesday evening, with carol singing and a party to follow. A visiting church choir will help with the singing, and the husbands of patients will be invited to be present. On Christmas Day. the Women's Division of Federated Farmers will bring gifts for mothers and babies. On Christmas Eve, carols will be sung at the Essex Hospital. Sunnyside Sunnyside Hospital held a Christmas dance for staff and patients on December 8, and a sports meeting for patients next day. This evening, nurses from the Christchurch Hospital will sing carols in the wards, and the Sunnyside staff will do the same on Tuesday. Some time in the next few days, Father Christmas will visit with a present for every patient, and presents from various organisations and sponsors will be distributed on Christmas morning. Church services will

be held in the hospital chapel on Christmas Day. Templeton At the Templeton Hospital and Training School, a nativity play was presented by patients last Thursday, followed by carol-singing round the wards by the staff. A Christmas party for the younger patients will be held on Saturday evening, and a Christmas dance on Tuesday evening. Father Christmas will visit the wards on Christmas Day. St. George’s St. George’s Hospital is in the midst of a series of parties for the various sections of the staff and organisations connected with the hospital. On Christmas Eve, the staff (except the domestic staff) will go round the wards singing carols and then have Christmas dinner. The domestic staff and patients will have their Christmas dinner on Christmas Day, and Father Christmas will arrive that day. There will be Christmas Day services in the chapel. Calvary

At Calvary Hospital there will be carol-singing on Sun-

day evening, and midnight Mass on Christmas Eve. Bethany A Christmas Party was held at the Bethany Hospital last evening when a Salvation Army youth group from Ashburton entertained staff and patients and carols were sung by candle-light. On Christmas Day there will be a service with the Salvation Army Citadel Band in attendance. Carols will be sung and Father Christmas will appear with gifts. In the evening there will be a concert arranged by the patients, and a Christmas tree. Karitane On Christmas morning at the Karitane Hospital, there will be a Christmas tree for the staff and presents for the babies. The Lyndhurst Maternity Hospital is expecting a church choir to come carolling on Christmas Eve.

Death In Falls.—An unidentified man waded into the Niagara river on Monday and was swept to his death over the falls, witnesses told police.—New York, December 16.