Merry Christmas to all of our friends, family and followers! We wish you a bright holiday season and a Happy New Year.
I wanted to share Christmas from our aspect today. From the Autism Aspect. Mia’s first Christmas was a typical first. She was six months old, and wanted to play with nothing except for the wrapping paper that hid the wondrous play things beneath it.
As the years progressed, Mia showed little interest in unwrapping gifts. She does not do the whole “Santa” thing. And she could care less about an Elf on her shelf. In fact, to Mia, it’s just the time of year when there’s a tree in the house instead of out, with lights on it and things under it.
While many people will gasp at this stark contrast to how a kid would usually grow up loving Christmas and getting excited for the big guy in the red suit to show up, there are many out there that go through this holiday season much in the same way Mia and I do. Many are upset about it, and I can’t say that I wasn’t at first. But now, at our seventh year of Christmas together, I’ve got nothing but positives about it.
So, I decided to share some of my favorite parts of Christmas from our unique Autism Aspect.
Traditions are still traditions, even if they’re not the traditional kind. Every year, we drive around looking for the best Christmas light shows….in new Christmas jammies! We also visit “the big one” at the L.L. Bean store in Freeport. Mia gets more excited at the idea of looking for lights then she does about bringing in a Christmas tree!
Save the paper, hold the bows. Mia will peek under wrapping paper when she is shown how to unwrap a gift. But unless it’s fully available to her, she just thinks it’s something under there that she can’t play with. Unwrapped presents under the tree are her favorite. She immediately knows those toys are for her, instead of wondering what those brightly wrapped cubes are.
Big ticket items are usually the simplest. One year, as a stocking stuffer, I found Mia one of those toys that has all the pins in it that shows your hand print or whatever when you put it on something. It was at our local Walmart and I thought that it would make a great sensory toy for her. When she found it in her stocking, it was her most favored toy of the day. Best $5.00 I had spent all season!
Twenty toys, ten toys, two toys, ONE?! As a single mom, money is always tight. While most people are scrambling to put a pile of gifts under the tree for their kids, I don’t really have to uphold to all that pressure. With Mia, she could care less if there were one toy, or a hundred toys under that tree. She’s happy with anything that is given to her. (Of course, I try to spoil her as best as I can every year regardless!)
Bake those cookies, for MOM!! I don’t know when this started, or why Mia made the association, but we do bake cookies for Christmas just like most people do. We put them on a plate and set them on a table next to the tree. After a while, Mia started bringing the plate back to me. When I set it down, she started bringing the cookies to me, and then wouldn’t leave me alone until I started eating them. Now, we bake cookies, set them on the table along with a plate of Cheeze-it’s and skittles, and then Mia brings both plates to the couch and we sit and snack. Different? Yes. Adorable? Absolutely!
Let’s go pick out the toys! Most kids start circling things in ads or making wish lists shortly after Thanksgiving. But a kid who can’t talk or write, doesn’t have the ability to tell me what she want’s for Christmas. But, she sure can show me! Every year, we make a trip to local toy stores, and I let Mia show me what she really likes, and I interpret it as what she really wants. I take pictures with my phone and go back later to get them. I win by making sure she gets things she will really use, and she wins by getting things she picked out in her own unique Christmas list!
What can we fit into this year? Every year, Mia likes to cram herself into the tightest spaces she can find. The past few years, she has chosen to do the stocking dance. Next year, I’m going to have to make her a bigger stocking, because this year she couldn’t fit into it!
Mia gives the best gifts ever! Most kids either help pick out a gift, or make a gift for their parents for Christmas. Where Mia is so sensory based, she has a hard time constructing things, so handmade Mia gifts are hard to come by. But that’s ok. Mia fills my life with smiles, love, kisses, and cuddles, every day of the year. She is the best all around gift, and I couldn’t be happier with being blessed to have her in my life!
Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to you all! May you feel joy and happiness this season, and throughout your lives!
