ABC: ‘Relaxed Christmas’ success leads to emotional call for more sessions

The UUP councillor for Portadown, who indicated she too had gone to Bleary Business and Community Centre to enjoy the atmosphere in the first half of December, became emotional when she praised the council team who had put together such a successful programme of events.

The events took place over two weekends with all sessions booked out. A total of 220 families attended over the two weekends, and over 280 children and 292 adults came to visit. Families experienced arts and crafts, Mrs Claus’s Kitchen, a sensory room, Santa’s Grotto and the Petting Farm, all in a relaxed environment.

Throughout the Relaxed Christmas experience over 80% of visitors completed a short questionnaire to capture their feedback and further improve this offering going forward. Of the total visitors who responded to the survey, 100% were extremely satisfied with the Relaxed Christmas event and loved the design, delivery and experience from start to finish.

Also, 100% felt they were likely to return to Relaxed Christmas next year and would recommend the event to friends. Some families, however, would have liked to spend longer in each section, and a number of recommendations have been made going forward, including extending the festive initiative.

The Petting Farm will be included again next year as this proved very popular, and there are plans to build on the sensory equipment for the sensory room as the children and their families loved it.

Addressing fellow councillors at a recent Economic Development & Regeneration Committee meeting of Armagh City, Banbridge & Craigavon Borough Council, Councillor Flaherty said: “When it comes to Christmas there’s one thing I I will never miss and it’s that relaxed Christmas event.

Very Proud

“It’s an event that we really should be very proud of in this council. It’s a very special event for families and children. Most of you know where my background is on this and it’s particularly important for families whose children have extra medical – I get all emotional when I talk about this.

“It’s so important for these children, maybe it’s the only experience that they get, and you really went above this year. I encourage other councillors, please go and see what happens at this event and what it’s like. The improvements and the changes that were made were excellent, [including] this new sensory equipment which I know we’ll be able to use ourselves again.

“You mentioned building on that. It’s important that we do that and we can roll them out into other events.

“If we could run it for the month, we would. I am with you on it that the quality of it is much better than the quantity, but I see that is a recommendation and we’ve got to find some budget.

“I say we start looking for some budget for that. I know money’s tight, but when we do something in this council well, we should be singing it from the rooftops that we do it well and that it’s appreciated. Let’s enhance what we have.”

François Vincent, Local Democracy Reporter