Christmas is coming! — Scope | Disability forum
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Christmas is coming!

Heather
Heather Community member Posts: 168 Connected
I'm starting to prepare for our annual nightmare time. Our son hates Christmas and lives in fear of Santa. Each year as school prepares for Christmas our son is taken ill with stress and has to be taken out of school before he ends up in hospital. Trying to tell friends and family to please not make a fuss and keep popping over with presents is just not sinking in and for our daughter's sake it's hard to "cancel" the whole event. Does anyone else suffer these problems and found any escape plans? HELP!

Comments

  • JimJams
    JimJams Community member Posts: 174 Connected
    edited June 2014
    We prepare for christmas a bit earlier than usual, with books about santa, for us it is about preparing our son for a change coming up, as their will be visits to the school from santa and x mas parties etc, this all makes my son anxious as it is another change to the routine. All we have tried so far is christmas books and films. Time will tell if this helps or not I am unsure. Maybe you could leave subtle hints about christmas around the house throughout the year so that it is not such a shock when it comes round again, subliminally the concept might sink in more if it is seen more regularly. We left some christmas ornaments in the house till around June of this year. Hope this helps in some way
  • Willow
    Willow Community member Posts: 18 Listener
    Maybe you could decorate only your daughter's room so she is not missing out and your son can avoid it if he wants.
    Maybe some de-sensitisation work with Santa-associate Santa with something he does like, try and remove the fear, eg if it's the beard let him play with a beard. Is there a teacher or child pscyhologist to help as it seems quite extreme fear and it is very individual.
    Make your own Xmas traditions so you could have fisfingers for Xmas lunch or dvd on when Santa mentioned to try and bridge no Xmas and Xmas.
    Or as my friend with a similar problem does go to Center Parcs or isolated cottages.
  • Heather
    Heather Community member Posts: 168 Connected
    Ahhhhh!!!! Escape sounds good!!! But a bit rough on our daughter. Going to try the early introduction though. Thought an early advent calendar would be a good start-Christmas and chocolate-got to be a good mix! he has no concept of numbers or meaning so if we go through 2 or 3 before Christmas he'll just be hyper!
    Tried decorating just daughters room, unfortunately our son ripped everything to shreds. Taking ornaments/pictures down is not tolerated so I will try just laying a few unbreakable items around. Start next week during half term so change isn't a shock when he gets home from school. Will let you know initial reaction.
  • savvymum
    savvymum Community member Posts: 5 Listener
    Christmas is hard especially if you have a special angel . We don't have a christmas tree instead we put the christmas lights on the ceiling.
    We do a count down to christmas have a big chart on the wall marking off each day. We made a social story as a book so that they can read it anytime, explaining what happens at christmas.
    Good luck x
  • Heather
    Heather Community member Posts: 168 Connected
    Been working slowly introducing the odd christmas idea into our son's mind. Not sure if it's that, or just bad timing, but he is very stressed and only sleeping 2 hours a night at the mo. I'm so tired I haven't had much energy to work on it. School have started preparations and noticed his behaviour is not normal. Respite at the moment and it's bliss! Going to make some treasure hunts rather than advents as he ate all the chocolates in 4 days! That might be one reason he's not sleeping!!!!
  • Clare35
    Clare35 Community member Posts: 9 Listener
    Hi i am ashamed to say that when xmas comes i have a very hard job trying to get presents for my son. when i do get them he doesn't play with them. Any tips please. He has learning problems, and he is in a multisensory class at school plus he is showing autistic tendancies.
  • Teresa
    Teresa Community member Posts: 24 Listener
    Presents are so difficult. My daughter loves chewing things, so anything made of plastic (or wood, or cardboard) will not last long. The best presents we bought her, in terms of her enjoyment of them and their longevity, have been her scooter and a light that projects colours like a kaleidoscope on the ceiling. She also loves tassels and ribbons, so we buy her those. Sensory things are always good, but some of the ones marketed for kids with ASD are just too temptingly chewable for my girl.

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