History has little recorded evidence about Christmas celebrations at the Hospital, because the hospital was mainly concerned with the treatment of people with mental health issues and those who required life-long guardianship and protective care perhaps? The early pastoral care was often left to the local Ministers of religion in New Norfolk whose job it was to also cater for the whole Derwent Valley as well at the hospital’s patients. These were replaced with social workers in later years. It was the job of the local Ministers of Religion to celebrate the mainly Christian Festivals along with volunteers and lay-readers of the time, some of those were Board Members and Official Visitors at the hospital.

It wasn’t their job to arrange the party, so to speak. So who did? The Hospital Women’s Auxiliary and the Parent’s and Friends Association in later years would often be the instigators for fundraising events for the purchase of Patient gifts along with hospital staff and outside organisations of benevolence such as the Richmond Fellowship and Retarded Children’s Association.

The one thing that was clear throughout history is the gatherings in the hall and general celebrations that abounded throughout the year, therefore it would have been hard to think that Christmas wasn’t treated with as much enthusiasm. I have been searching through records and have found some interesting memories shared about Christmas in the hospital. Some of these memories are from board members, cooks and ex staff.

“There were socials, annual balls, Christmas parties where they would enjoy getting dressed up, a swimming pool and lots of recreational things to do and shopping trips for clients who were able.” Employee 1967 to 1978

Mr Baker used to get dressed up as Santa Claus, assisted by Mrs Baker, and visit all the Wards along with carol singers…. there were memories of how table clothes were introduced into the Wards and the children learnt how to sit up, especially for Christmas Meals. Some of the “Do Gooders” stopped all that. Recordings from: Living In Living Out, a collaborative exhibition of sound, text and stereo images, drawn from the experience of work at the Royal Derwent Mental Hospital, created by Poonkhin Khut, Miranda Morris and Martin Walsh.

“There was always plenty of food, I remember cooking all the Christmas Puddings and the kitchen prepared turkey and hams, some of the hams went missing, I think I knew who was responsible but they were in much higher positions than I” Baker/Cook/ Ward Aide 1962-1997

“I remember Christmas presents being given out to the Patients, everyone was given a pair of socks or underwear, I can remember which.” Nurse 9 years

What were your memories of working, living or being in the township of New Norfolk of Christmas and the Hospital?

Do you have pictures of Christmas Celebrations?

Do you know of Patients that went to staff homes for the holidays or to join in at family meals at Christmas?

We are keen to get these stories on the record so that information can be recorded. Stories, both happy and sad, need to be told during the tours of Willow Court so, the many great things, and human tragedies that happened during Christmas at the Hospital can be known.

P.S. This was a post I placed on Facebook on several groups to start a conversation about the Christmas culture at the Hospital. The response was less than stellar except for one person who took the idea to an ex staff forum. The response was quite difference than I thought and was a reminder for me that there was a clear separation between “Patient/Resident and Staff” While this is typical of a medical model, it was a reminder to me that “different people belong within their own social groups”. While this isn’t 100% true and people did break with this code of behaviour, the majority followed cultural expectations.

The comments and memories shared were 90% about staff functions and the fun and interesting times had at these events with only one mentioning patients/residents. I could only come up with one hypothesis and that was based on the evidence, separation was the normal culture during times of celebrations. This is an area I would like more input from people who had experience. (Edited. Mark Krause)