A CARE home boss is asking the community to help bring festive cheer to residents after they received a notice restricting the use of decorations.

Staff and residents at The Old Vicarage care home in Allithwaite have launched an appeal to deck the halls in Christmas cards.

The home has been unable to decorate with items hung from the ceiling, nativity scenes or ornaments due to the coronavirus restrictions on Christmas decorations.

Manager Kamal Siddiqi said: "There can be no real trees. It is unclear if we are allowed fake ones in communal areas. We can't have decorations on flat surfaces so there will be no nativity scenes and everything must be easily washable. Everything must go on walls and be prepared to be thrown out if there is a positive swab test result."

He said receiving cards from family, friends, and the wider public provides a great boost to the morale of the residents.

He said: "It's really nice. The residents like receiving the cards and you reading them out to them and telling them all about it and who has contacted them.

"They especially like them from young children, they quite like that.

"They really enjoy it because Christmas has been clamped down and there are so many things that we can't do this year. They can't go out and we can't have any entertainers in.

"The cards are just something different for them to look at and to see and to read and to just know that there are people who are thinking of them."

The restrictions have come as part of national guidance sent to care homes throughout England.

According to the guidelines, decorations on horizontal surfaces should be avoided and a number of decorations should not be used such as wooden or live trees, cloth or knitted toys.

Residents will be allowed to have their own artificial tree placed in their own room.

To send a Christmas card, address the envelope to: The Old Vicarage, Vicarage Lane, Allithwaite, Grange-over-Sands LA11 7QN