CHILDREN & YOUNG PEOPLE
The Little Stressed Elf
This child-friendly resource created by Beacon House helps children manage stress during the busy holiday season. It tells the story of a hardworking elf feeling overwhelmed by holiday tasks and introduces a simple self-soothing technique called “tapping.” The guide explains how to use rhythmic tapping on specific points of the body to reduce stress and provides step-by-step instructions with illustrations. It encourages children and adults to use this calming strategy when feeling anxious or overstimulated, reminding them they are “more than enough” just as they are.
My Christmas Social Story
The story by Little Puddins is a visual and accessible resource designed to help children, particularly those with additional needs, prepare for and understand the Christmas season. It explains key aspects of Christmas in a simple, step-by-step manner, such as using a countdown calendar, putting up decorations, sending letters to Santa, and receiving gifts. The story also includes what to expect on Christmas Eve and morning, emphasising routines and offering reassurance about unexpected feelings, like not liking a gift. This guide provides a structured way to reduce anxiety and promote a sense of familiarity during the festive period.
Honouring Your Sensory Systems This Christmas: Managing Sensory Sensitivities
The guide by Beacon House is a practical resource for managing sensory sensitivities during the festive season. It provides examples of common sensory challenges, such as loud noises, bright lights, and crowded spaces, alongside strategies to support both children and adults in navigating these situations. Suggestions include creating quiet spaces, providing advanced notice of activities, softening lights, and offering alternatives like private gift opening or bringing familiar foods. The guide also features a template letter for communicating sensory needs to family and friends, helping to foster understanding and inclusivity during holiday gatherings.
Sensory Advent Calendar
This calendar by Beacon House is a creative and interactive resource designed to support sensory regulation and connection for children during the festive season. It includes a variety of daily activities, such as balancing, stretching, rolling, and mindful sensory experiences, aimed at organising the senses and promoting brain-body connection. The calendar encourages shared moments of fun and bonding, with simple instructions for crafting a personalised advent calendar at home. Safety and enjoyment are prioritised, with guidelines for adapting activities to suit individual preferences and abilities while ensuring supervision and a risk-free environment.
Positive Paper Chains
The resource by Beacon House encourages children and families to create paper chains featuring affirmations and positive statements. Each link in the chain displays uplifting messages such as “I am enough,” “I can do hard things,” and “It’s okay for me to ask for help.” This activity is designed to promote self-esteem, mindfulness, and emotional well-being. It offers a fun, creative way to reinforce positive thinking and foster a sense of connection and accomplishment, making it a meaningful project for individuals or groups during the festive season.
Winter Walk Bingo
This mindful and engaging activity designed by Beacon House helps individuals and families connect with the present moment during the festive season. The resource includes bingo cards tailored for rural and urban environments, featuring prompts like spotting twinkly lights, hearing laughter, or noticing the feel of a stone. Participants can tick off items using their senses to explore and interact with their surroundings. This activity encourages grounding, reduces stress, and fosters curiosity and connection, making it a fun way to bring mindfulness into everyday walks or holiday outings.
PARENTS
AUTISM & SENSORY ISSUES
Christmas Sensory Survival Kit
This is a practical guide to help individuals with sensory processing differences navigate the challenges of the festive season. It offers tailored strategies for managing sensory sensitivities, such as tips for clothing, decorations, socialising, and gift-giving. The guide includes ideas for sensory-friendly activities, advice on maintaining routines, and recommendations for creating calming environments. It emphasises flexibility, self-regulation, and adapting traditions to meet individual needs, while also providing links to additional resources and support for families.
Altogether Autism Christmas Survival Guide
The guide offers tailored strategies and insights for families and individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) to navigate the festive season. Topics include coping with changes in routine, managing sensory challenges, and involving children with ASD in holiday preparations while respecting their boundaries. It provides practical tips for shopping, decorations, and social gatherings, as well as managing feeding difficulties and supporting siblings. Additionally, it offers advice for transitioning back to school post-holidays and creating autism-friendly classroom accommodations for the new term.
Managing the Christmas Sensory Overload
The guide by Beacon House offers practical strategies for helping children and adults manage sensory challenges during the festive season. It highlights the importance of maintaining routines, preparing for changes, and using sensory regulation techniques. Suggestions include incorporating calming activities like cuddling under a blanket, using noise-cancelling headphones, or engaging in nature walks. The guide also recommends sensory-friendly adjustments, such as dimming lights, reducing decorations, and prioritising quiet spaces. Additionally, it offers ideas for heavy work and organising activities to support sensory regulation and emotional well-being during this busy time.
Autism-Friendly Christmas Guide
The guide offers practical advice to help families create a festive season that supports autistic children, young people, and adults. It provides strategies to minimise sensory overload, such as gradual decorating, avoiding overstimulating lights and sounds, and sticking to familiar routines. The guide emphasises the importance of predictability, using tools like visual timetables and countdowns to reduce anxiety. Suggestions include personalising Christmas traditions, adapting gift-giving to suit the child’s preferences, and creating quiet spaces for retreat. With a focus on flexibility and understanding, the guide helps families celebrate in a way that is enjoyable and comfortable for everyone.
Making the Most of the Holidays for Your Family and Your Son/Daughter on the Autism Spectrum
The guide provides practical tips to help families navigate the festive season with children or adults on the autism spectrum. It emphasises preparation, maintaining routines, and reducing sensory overload to minimise anxiety. Strategies include using visual schedules, social stories, and gradual decorating to provide predictability and structure. The guide also offers advice on managing holiday events, supporting sensory sensitivities, and fostering positive interactions with family members. By prioritising the individual’s needs, the guide helps families create a more enjoyable and autism-friendly holiday experience.
TRAUMA | FOSTERING | ADOPTION
The Christmas Storm: Guide for parents to support traumatised children
The guide by Beacon House provides practical advice for supporting traumatised children during the festive season. It emphasises creating a safe and predictable environment, understanding children’s emotional triggers, and managing heightened excitement and stress. The guide encourages co-creating a Christmas experience tailored to the child’s needs, fostering connection through shared activities, and letting go of unrealistic expectations. It also addresses challenges with giving and receiving presents, post-Christmas blues, and maintaining structure and routines. The resource focuses on empathy, curiosity, and connection to help children and caregivers navigate the season with resilience and understanding.
A Trauma-Informed Christmas Guide
The guide by the Centre for Fostering and Adoption Support offers practical advice for adoptive parents to navigate the festive season with care-experienced children. It highlights the unique challenges children face, such as heightened emotions, sensory sensitivities, and feelings of loss or guilt. The guide provides strategies to reduce overwhelm, manage expectations, and build positive experiences through predictable routines, sensory-friendly environments, and fostering emotional safety. It emphasises the importance of creating shared traditions, allowing space for feelings, and gradually developing a new family narrative around Christmas, tailored to the child’s needs.
PACE at Christmas Guide
The guide by Beacon House applies the therapeutic principles of PACE (Playfulness, Acceptance, Curiosity, and Empathy) to help families navigate the challenges of the festive season. It provides practical strategies to create a steady and manageable pace, encouraging emotional connection and reducing stress during this busy time. By fostering playful interactions, showing acceptance of feelings, maintaining curiosity about behaviours, and demonstrating empathy, the guide helps build stronger relationships and supports both children and adults in managing the heightened emotions often experienced at Christmas.
Supporting Your Foster Child Through Christmas Guide
The guide provides essential advice for foster carers to create a positive and supportive holiday experience for children in care. It addresses the unique challenges that Christmas can bring, such as heightened anxiety, emotional triggers, and difficulties with changes in routine. The guide emphasises the importance of understanding the child’s past experiences, using therapeutic communication, and fostering a sense of safety and connection during this potentially overwhelming time. It offers practical strategies to reduce stress, strengthen relationships, and ensure children feel valued and cared for throughout the festive season. Perfect for carers looking to create a nurturing and trauma-informed Christmas environment.
ADULTS
ANXIETY
Christmas and Anxiety Workbook
This is a practical resource created by Anxiety UK to help individuals manage stress and anxiety during the festive season. It offers self-care tips, mindfulness exercises, and strategies for addressing common challenges like financial worries, social anxiety, and feelings of loneliness. The workbook includes activities such as mindful walks, colouring, and knitting to promote relaxation, along with advice on managing expectations and setting boundaries during holiday events. It also highlights support resources, helplines, and volunteering opportunities for those seeking connection or assistance.
Out with the Old, In with the New?
The guide by Beacon House encourages families to adapt or create new traditions during the festive season while addressing the emotional complexities of change. It highlights the importance of balancing old and new traditions to meet changing circumstances, such as family dynamics or financial constraints. The guide offers practical tips, including starting small, tolerating discomfort, involving others in the process, and letting go of traditions that no longer serve. It also shares creative examples of family traditions, like homemade decorations, Taskmaster-style games, and Secret Santa with a twist, promoting connection, fun, and inclusivity during the holidays.
The Ghosts of Christmas: A Self-Reflection Exercise
This is a reflective tool by Beacon House designed to help individuals process their past, present, and future experiences during the festive season. It includes guided questions to explore emotions, memories, and hopes, encouraging users to identify what they want to let go of, embrace, or invite into their lives. The exercise promotes mindfulness by focusing on physical sensations and emotions, helping users reconnect with their inner selves. It concludes with actionable steps for positive change and gratitude, offering a grounding and empowering approach to navigating the holidays and the year ahead.
Christmas Curiosity Exercise
This reflective tool by Beacon House is designed to help individuals assess whether their Christmas traditions and plans align with their current needs and desires. It encourages taking at least 20 minutes to reflect on past Christmas experiences, current plans, and personal feelings towards them. The exercise guides users through steps such as creating a comfortable space for reflection, noticing emotional and physical responses to holiday activities, and identifying what to embrace or leave behind for a more fulfilling festive season. It promotes self-awareness, mindfulness, and making intentional choices that support individual well-being during the holidays.
Alternative Guide to Surviving Christmas
The resource by Beacon House offers a humorous and practical approach to managing the festive season, especially for those who feel overwhelmed or disconnected from traditional celebrations. The guide encourages embracing individuality and prioritising self-care by redefining Christmas traditions to suit personal needs. It includes tips for finding quiet moments, setting boundaries, and engaging in meaningful activities such as volunteering or spending the day alone. The guide also highlights the importance of managing expectations and letting go of societal pressures for a “perfect” Christmas.
A Christmas Present: Self-care Activity
The resource by Beacon House encourages individuals to practice self-care during the festive season by gifting themselves a moment of peace amidst the chaos. The author shares a personal ritual of creating a calming atmosphere with favourite drinks, soft music, and gentle lighting to reconnect with the present moment. It promotes the idea of taking intentional time to rest, reflect, and nurture oneself in a way that feels meaningful and restorative.
Christmas Tips for Autistic Adults
The guide from the National Autistic Society provides practical advice to help autistic individuals navigate the festive season with reduced stress. It offers strategies for planning and preparation, such as creating visual schedules, managing sensory sensitivities, and setting up quiet spaces for breaks. The guide includes tips for adapting Christmas routines, choosing decorations, and handling gift-giving to suit individual preferences. By focusing on personal comfort and communication with friends and family, the guide supports autistic adults in creating an enjoyable and manageable holiday experience.
Winter Wellbeing Toolkit
The toolkit offers practical strategies to support mental health and emotional wellbeing during the winter months and festive season. It includes 20 activities to combat the winter blues, advice for parents and carers on supporting loved ones, and guidance for managing grief, seasonal affective disorder (SAD), and financial stress. The toolkit features tools like the “Worry Tree,” suggestions for creating a self-care box, and tips for maintaining routines and finding joy in simple pleasures. It also provides resources for urgent mental health support, ensuring individuals have access to help when needed. Perfect for fostering resilience and self-care during a challenging time of year.
