The less they get, the happier they are

It is the day after Christmas Day and if social media were to be believed my children have been pretty hard done by. Except they haven’t.

By society’s standard in the country I live in we are considered to have little income. But in actual fact we are very rich indeed.

This Christmas my children received less than many others. Much of what they had yesterday was second hard or given by family. Yet this truly has been our best Christmas ever.

Both of my beautiful twins have a developmental neurological condition called autism. Despite being seven year old my son is unable to speak and has significant communication difficulties. He can not ask or show me what he would like as a gift at any time of year and only plays on rare occasions with toys suitable for infants. My daughter has zero concept of peer pressure or current trends and instead likes to re-enact things she has seen on TV or a DVD. She likes simple, small toys that she can line up.

So I decided this year to give them the Christmas THEY wanted. I was brought up as one of four children with extended family of uncles, aunts and grandparents and a minimum of twelve people at the table for Christmas dinner every year. I loved it! My children would hate this!

So we socialised less. We had less people here; in fact we had no-one around on Christmas Day at all and we all stayed home.

We ate less. The kids had no selection boxes or sweets at all and instead had some fish bites and chips for lunch and sausages and mash with baked beans for dinner later on. We never even had pudding. Not because we could not afford it but because no-one was bothered.

We were at peace. We were content. The less we got and did, the happier we all were.

Isaac loved a simple book. And a toy toaster that only just cost marginally more then the wrapping paper I used to wrap it in! A family member bought him a plastic jar of magnetic letters. It brought him huge joy and despite being described by professionals as ‘own agenda’ and ‘in his own world’, he gave me eye contact and smiles and vocalised to get me to tell him the letters and numbers as he showed me them. An inexpensive item bringing priceless moments of love, communication, connection and education.

Naomi had a new DVD and some small characters. But one of the things she loved most was a small game of bowling which she used her new characters to play with time and time again. Turn taking, fine motor control, imagination and maths skills all coming into play in a toy that cost just a few pounds. And together we spent some beautiful time together playing a game of dominoes that cost half the price of a roll of sticky tape bought to wrap the gifts in! Gran bought her a tub of Lego and she helped me make a pencil. That pencil became a magic pencil that wrote letters and passwords all over the house.

A few days before Christmas I came back from a meeting at my sons school to a note through my door. All it said was there was a parcel in the bin for me. When I went to retrieve it I discovered two bin bags of wrapped gifts for my children. I have no idea who did this but it was such a beautiful act. One box was full of second hand transformer type toys. My son has fiddled with these and my daughter is fascinated by the moving parts. Another gift was a craft set my daughter loves and another was some children’s make up which Naomi says will make her even more beautiful. (I don’t believe that is possible!)

It has been a very simple Christmas, by choice rather than need. The children got less but in doing so we ALL got more. More in the way of quality time with them, more peace, more calmness and more appreciation of the things we so often take for granted. For the first time they were not overwhelmed or pressured and neither were we.

I love Christmas; I always have done. But this year my children taught me the true meaning of it all. Baby Jesus was born in the most humble and basic of circumstances and in our humble Christmas this year we found a closeness and a magic we have not had before. My children showed me that the less they get, the happier they are.

Well apart from love that is! You can never ever have too much love!