Want best SPD Christmas ever? So how can you help someone with SPD cope at Christmas? We understand Christmas can be a difficult and overwhelming time of year for those of us who are neurodiverse or struggle with sensory processing difficulties. There are so many changes around Christmas and our structure and routine can be seriously affected. Here is a secret to the best SPD Christmas ever.
There is so much unpredictability and it can be very difficult and overwhelming. Personally, I love Christmas. Well, that isn’t technically true. I love the build-up to Christmas. I love the music, the food, the lights, the movies, dark nights, and hot chocolates with marshmallows, snuggled up in fleecy blankets. I love buying gifts for people. I do not however like the actual day. It’s such a letdown and most years I do cry because emotionally I can’t deal with how big I’ve built up this day in my head over the last 6 weeks for it to all be over.
My kids hate Christmas, they hate the build-up and they hate the day. One of my kids was born on Christmas day so that just makes it even worse for him. Although he likes getting money to buy things for his computer and he likes his nanas turkey. But it’s worst for my eldest Jamie. Jamie has always struggled with Christmas and I probably didn’t help by having a little brother premature on a day he wasn’t meant to arrive!!
Jamie cannot cope with the changes that come at Christmas. All of the things I love Jamie hates. The music, the lights, the food but especially the gifts. It started when Jamie was younger and writing a Christmas list to Santa. Why did they write a list for Santa only to get things they hadn’t asked for? It didn’t make sense! And logically that’s true! Jamie didn’t want or ask for PJ’s so why did Santa bring them? There are kids out there getting nothing yet we’re getting more than we asked for … I’ve got a tip for what to do with those unwanted presents but that’s for another day.
The other thing Jamie struggled with was having so many presents wrapped up to open. I remember Jamie’s first birthday. I was so excited that I had a little family party and invited everyone round for tea and cake. There were so many presents it was going to be great … wasn’t it?! Well the first thing Jamie opened was a dancing Fimble toy which was mesmerizing and that was it, they were obsessed and not at all interested in anything else that was sat in the pile waiting to be opened. Those presents sat for days. This was the same at Jamie’s first real Christmas. At just over 1 we had gone all out on gifts but Jamie didn’t want them and they actually sat for weeks unopened.
From this, we learned quickly. Let Jamie make a list and stick to the list!
But even that was too overwhelming. The next Christmas was the day little brother Joe arrived and so Christmas didn’t happen as it was planned. Joe wasn’t due until the end of January so when I went into labour on Christmas Eve all of our Christmas plans changed. Jamie went to nana and grandad’s house and after another C Section, I was in the hospital for a week meaning I got out just in time for New Year. During this time Jamie opened a couple of presents each day and brought them into the hospital to show me. We then continued to open presents well into 2006! I noticed Jamie was happy with this and it had worked really well.
A pile of presents on Christmas Day was too overwhelming and you didn’t get the time to play and appreciate them all. A present a day was easier. You can open it, appreciate it and play with it for the whole day! So that’s what we did. We found out what Jamie really wanted and that was the main present on the 25th of December.
But from 1st December to 24th December we had one present each day from the list. If you need some ideas, here are some of our very own best stocking fillers. Obviously, that’s a lot of presents and we couldn’t fill the full advent so some days the present was a bar of chocolate or a magazine. It worked really well for us. Jamie always knew what they were getting on Christmas Day so it was something to look forward to. It really took the stress out of Christmas for all of us. Plus having another child who was born on Christmas Day meant we could focus on Joe’s birthday instead. Which is exactly what we do! Which now leads to the best SPD Christmas ever.
I’ve shared this tip along with some others for many years now. But here at Sensooli we’ve gone one step further and made an advent offering that enables you to get the perfect gift for those who love our chewies.
In this beautiful gift box, there will be a gift a day. Wrapped in our Sensooli tissue paper and numbered 1-24. So that you can spread the surprises and the stress. If you don’t want to do the whole advent thing then it makes a wonderful gift on Christmas Day too!
You can get our advent boxes for children and adults, which basically means they differ in the size of bangles and some of the products included.
You can get the adult box for just £125 or 8 credits. If you bought all of these items separately they’d cost £338! So this is a sensory bargain perfect for Christmas.
The child calendar would be valued at £274 if you bought all the items separately but we are charging just £99 or 6 credits. Plus they come beautifully packaged for advent or Christmas.
We promise a minimum of 18 of our chewable items out of the 24, including a limited edition Christmas chew!
Once ordered we will hang onto your order until November the 25th when we will post all advent orders on that day in time for Dec 1st!
I and Jamie are super excited about this and we really hope you guys are too!
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