Pancakes and Christmas Cards. It seems like an unlikely combination but that is exactly what we had during a recent Headway North Cumbria Day Centre session.
Shrove Tuesday is the day in February or March immediately preceding Ash Wednesday (the first day of Lent), which is celebrated in many countries by making and eating pancakes. Many will know it as “Pancake Day” or “Pancake Tuesday”. This year Shrove Tuesday fell on 17 February.
Pancakes are associated with the day preceding Lent, because they are a way to use up rich foods such as eggs, milk, and sugar before the fasting season of the 40 days of Lent. Headway North Cumbria continued this tradition, a day early, during its weekly drop in session at the New Waterton Hall in Carlisle on Monday 16 February 2026.
Our cooking group prepared and served delicious pancakes, with a variety of toppings, including sugar, lemon juice, syrup and chocolate sauce.
Whilst the pancakes were being prepared in the kitchen, other members of the branch were in the main hall busy designing Christmas cards.
Why Christmas cards ? – Headway UK have launched a Christmas card competition to select three winning designs for the Headway 2026 Christmas card collection. Submissions need to be in by 29th March, so we felt we would start early by giving our members the opportunity to work up their own designs which they may wish to consider submitting in due course. Not everyone managed to finish their designs during the session, but a number were completed.
Details of the Headway Christmas card 2026 competition can be found here
Photographs from the Day Centre session can be found in the gallery in the photo album called Pancakes and Christmas Cards and are available to view in the slide show below:
