Ollie is 7 years old and lives with his Mum, Dad, and big sister Cara.
We are a family of 4 and have a 10-year-old daughter and 7-year-old non-verbal ASD son. Christmas time looks a little different for us, we always try to not have too many expectations and go with the flow, and we have to just try our best to keep both children happy. Ollie can struggle with the lack of routine without school, and we have to be careful with decorations as Ollie has been known to chew them, so we have got him his own little tree with plastic baubles. The one thing he does love is all the lights, he could watch them for hours!
We don't get to go and do all the traditional Christmas days out as it can be too much for Ollie, and we have never successfully taken him to see Santa as the new places and crowds are overwhelming. We always give it a try so Cara gets fun activities and we try to bring aids like a buggy and sensory bags to help Ollie cope.
Christmas for Ollie up until last year didn't mean much as he didn't understand presents and unwrapping, but last year for the first time he unwrapped his own presents and loved Christmas morning. He is starting now to say some words and will say Ho Ho Ho for Santa!
On Christmas Eve we do visit family, but we get home early as Ollie hates going to bed outside his routine hours, so we get home have some Christmas music on and a dance and Ollie goes to bed. We then let Cara open a new boardgame every Christmas eve and the 3 of us play it until she goes to bed.
On Christmas day, when visiting family, we bring ear defenders and a sensory bag for Ollie and eventually we head home about 6pm as Ollie wants to be in bed for 8pm, and he will not miss his bath! We have to adapt and we can’t always join in all the festivities, but we do it our way and it is still magical to us!
Autism NI helped us so much with coping strategies when Ollie really could not cope going out, if it wasn't for the progress he has made with all their visuals and physical aids we probably would not be able to go out over Christmas at all. We are so grateful to Autism NI and we hope any family struggling gets to receive their help!
Louise, Ollie's Mum
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