When Christmas Looks Different, and That’s Okay
The Christmas holiday season often looks different for Autism families, and that difference is not something that needs to be fixed. For many children on the spectrum, opening gifts or being surrounded by large crowds is not exciting or meaningful. For our family, Karson is not especially interested in gifts on Christmas morning. At first, that reality was hard for me to accept. Like many parents, I had a picture in my mind of what Christmas was supposed to look like. Over time, I learned that our holidays did not have to follow a traditional script to be full of love and joy. Now, I appreciate that we experience the season in two beautifully different ways. Big sister Karlyn absolutely loves the traditional parts of Christmas, the excitement, the surprises, and the rituals. Karson, on the other hand, has little interest in those things, and that is okay. We still buy gifts for him, with the understanding that his response may not look the same as his sister’s. His joy simply sh...
