A Night to Be Much Remembered

Christmas Dinner at Renaissance

To Renaissance Directors, Management and Staff:

As new residents of Renaissance Retirement Village, my wife and I would like to express our heartfelt gratitude for the superb Annual Residents Christmas Celebration, organised by Management and Staff.

From start to finish, it was a first-class occasion. It was touching to see how Management and Staff went out of their way to serve the Village residents. We are deeply grateful for the following highlights of the evening which we will treasure in our memories for a long time. 

As we entered the Moongalba Room, we were warmly greeted and welcomed by the entire Admin team, many who wore red colours for the Christmas season. In front of us were beautifully set rows of tables covered with white tablecloths. At each table were twelve white-covered chairs, each with a golden sash around the back rest. The tables were decorated with blue lamps in a variety of shapes. Each resident had a small, personalised, individually crafted name decoration at their seat. Menus of the evening’s meal had been specially printed and were available at each table.

The master of ceremonies, led the evening’s activities in an engaging manner and with warmth of personality. This was her seventeenth such occasion at Renaissance, and she reminisced on the first Christmas dinner she experienced, when the Leisure Centre was yet to be built.

A prayer of thanksgiving was fittingly offered for the special meal. Before long, the entire Admin team, including staff from the Cleveland Office and the Village maintenance team, were busy serving each resident — bringing them first the entree (quiche Lorraine, with salad and bread roll), then the main course (mustard glazed ham and traditional roast turkey with potatoes and vegetables), and finally the dessert (traditional Christmas pudding with custard, or pavlova with fresh fruit and cream).

Special thanks need to be expressed to the hard-working chef behind the scenes in the kitchen, with his team of young assistants who prepared the food and handled all the meal follow-up.

To our surprise and delight, between meal courses, we were graced with the music of Jonathon Welch, a well-known Australian choral conductor, opera singer, and voice teacher, now making his home in the Redlands. After a few solo pieces, his men’s choir joined him on the stage. Jonathon led the residents in the singing of selected Christmas carols, rich in the meaning and spirit of Christmas. The words had been kindly printed as a handout for residents to sing from.

We were privileged to have one of the Directors and co-owner of Renaissance attend the function. His words of welcome were appreciated by all. He and the other co-owner and director had a vision to make Renaissance a model retirement community that it is today. Theirs is a leadership style guided by integrity, as well as care for the residents.

To end the evening, four tickets, each with the name of a resident, were drawn in a raffle. The four winners each received a gift hamper filled with savoury and sweet delicacies, as well as drinks.

As a further special touch for the evening, a candy cane was hidden under a few place napkins. The lucky recipients of the candy also received a small potted live Christmas tree.

We would like to end our heartfelt appreciation with these words:

The quality, elegant Christmas dinner celebration put on by the Management and staff at Renaissance displayed a remarkable spirit of service and love toward the residents. Clearly, a lot of love, thoughtfulness, and caring had gone into the preparation for this event. The planning, set-up, and take-down must have taken countless hours — all truly a labour of love.

The harmony and happiness of the staff serving the residents in the dining room was clearly perceptible. During the meal, each staff member joined the residents at one of the tables. Such interaction further helps foster the close personal relationships that residents enjoy with the staff at Renaissance.

The memorable Christmas dinner that we as residents were treated to further positively reflects on the Renaissance Retirement Village. It is a community where many true values have been recaptured — witnessed in the smiles, contentment, peacefulness, and happy faces of staff and residents alike.

As a smaller independent retirement village, Renaissance has had the unencumbered potential of forging an innovative model for retirement community living at its best.

Alexander and Eva Peck