Two months ago, having discovered the "tree cosy" they had spent countless hours knitting and stitching had been vandalised after being put on display in Emerson St, there were few smiles on the faces of the folk at the Bardowie Retirement Complex in Napier.
But yesterday the smiles returned - as had the nursery rhyme-themed tree cosy which they had set to and restored.
Bardowie's activities spokeswoman Christine Reid said vandals had tried to destroy the sock by pulling parts of it off and leaving stitching undone.
She took the damaged work down and took it back to the complex, where the initially disappointed residents vowed not to let the vandals win, and got stuck in repairing it.
It was finished up, and yesterday it became as much a labour of love as it was a colourful "thank you" for about 20 children from the Kidspace early childhood centre which is only a few doors away off Kennedy Rd.
As Mrs Reid explained, the youngsters visit Bardowie about three times a year to sing a few songs for the residents, especially at Christmas.
"So what we've decided to do this year is to donate the sock to the children from the Kidspace early learning centre - we thought this would be a good way to give something back to them."
Mrs Reid said a big effort had gone into encouraging the residents to help make the sock this year, and the vandal attack was upsetting.
It originally included three sewn lambs and two had been pulled off when it was on display in central Napier back in October.
"It's just ridiculous. I don't know why people would want to do that.
"They're probably walking around with one of them [lambs] on their hats or something silly like that."
But yesterday it was all smiles and song, and the youngsters were delighted to be told that the knitted artwork was going back to Kidspace with them.
