16. Preparing the wards for Christmas

By this time in the run-up to Christmas a Christmas tree and holly branches would have been delivered by the gardening staff to each of the wards that was going to remain open.

These were of course "the real McCoy" ... 8-9 feet high and each of them had a time honoured resting place in their ward. Most of the medical wards where still of the long, open Florence Nightingale type and so trees in these wards were often positioned at the bottom end of each ward in front of windows (looking out on to the backs to the ward blocks) and sitting between two doors ... one leading into the the toilet cubicle area and the other leading into an area housing bathrooms and wash basins. Care obviously had to be taken that there were no over-hanging branches to impede the passage of wheelchairs or zimmer frames being used by patients going in or out of either of these rooms.

Thus as you entered most of these long, open wards there in front of you at the end of the two rows of hospital beds, stood a beautifully decorated tree with a collection of gift-wrapped parcels around its base beaming out its unspoken message of familiarity and comfort.

In contrast, the surgical wards of the 60's had been re-furbished in advance of the medical wards and so surgical patients were housed - in the main - in two, four or sometimes six-bedded bays. Thus when it came to installing the Christmas tree, mounting 'the crib scene' and putting up streamers and decorations, variations on Christmassy themes and colour schemes could be produced by those extraordinary nurses who had a flair for interior design.

The Christmas tree was often installed in the main entrances of surgical wards or in the "nurse's station" but I shall never forget the enthusiastic installation one year of the crib in Ward 2B.

There was always stiff competition between the wards to achieve the best results when it came to preparing the wards for Christmas and I remember that one of of our senior Staff Nurses, a tall, young bespectacled Staff Nurse called Teresa, had arranged to borrow four adult size tailor's dummies from a local shop and in "our ward" we set out to create a life-size nativity scene in an empty but prominiently situated bay.

The usual offering, a small, table-top wooden stable and its nativity figures were banished from sight and three or four of us set out to reconstruct the an almost life-like Bethlehem stable scene in the midst of our surgical ward.

Mary was helped into a sitting position in front of a artistically draped orange-box manger, Joseph placed in a protective upright position at her side and two shepherds were eased into positions of adoration in front of the crib. All of them were then dressed (draped) in yards of dress material which had been begged, borrowed or stolen from Dartford haberdashery shops or Dartford market and then dressing gown cords and pins were used to finish off their costume arrangements.

Then to add yet more 'authenticity' to this "lowly cattle shed" an immense quantity of fine wood-wool was spread out around the feet of the performers. (By wood wool, I mean that very fine, curly, packing substance that used to be used by porcelain china manufacturers for packing delicate china into boxes ready for transit to shops).

The guiding star then had to be wired up onto one of the cubicle walls to give the effect of the star hovering over Christ's birthplace and "voila" the job was done.

No prize was ever awarded for the best-decorated ward but that year when nurses, walking- patients, relatives and hospital staff visited each other's wards to inspect the results, ours was designated, by common consent, the best dressed ward in the hospital.

And "the icing on the cake" as far as this tableau was concerned ?

Well just imagine yourself there - in front of that stable on Ward 2B - on Christmas Eve. It's dark and cold outside on the salt marshes. Inside though the main ward lights are off and the majority of patients are now sleeping with just dim night-lights 'on' high up on the ceilings. It's warm and quiet .... and there - as never before - anyone wanting to could hestitate for a few moments in front of a life sized, ward manger scene.

A borrowed baby Jesus lies in the crib, his parents and the shepherds standing quietly by and above their heads the natal star hovers motionless, illuminated by the light of solitary, well postioned (but carefully dimmed) overhead bed light !

Drink it in - as I did all those years ago. That scene will certainly remain stamped on my memory for a long time ... and will, I suspect, also have been encoded within the memories of a lot of other people too.