When you have a child with Autism, something as simple as a picture with Santa can cause major stress and worry.
Knox never likes to sit still and has a hard time communicating his needs and wants. He also has a lot of sensory processing issues and in over-stimulating environments, or even with a change in environment, he becomes overwhelmed—which leads to meltdowns or complete shutdowns that can take hours to come out of.
Needless to say I wasn’t sure we’d get ANY Santa pictures this year: would he be afraid of Santa and scream? Would he throw a tantrum for having to wait in line to see Santa? Would he sit on Santa’s lap long enough to snap a picture? Would he try to take Santa’s glasses, or play with a vein in his hand?.
Then I saw it – a post from Autism Speaks about their “Santa Cares” initiative, which teamed up with malls across the country to offer people of all ages with disabilities a chance to visit with Santa in a calm, sensory-friendly setting. The mall down the street from us was participating… and for the first time I had a little glimmer of hope for a nice picture with Santa this year.
We were able to go to the mall before it opened to the public and Knox ran around with the other kids like maniacs until it was our turn to meet Santa. They created a very calming environment (dimmed lights throughout the mall and music set to a low volume) and even had coloring tables set up so the kids could play instead of waiting in line.
When it was our turn, Santa wanted to know about my son – what did he like? What were his triggers? He was calm, kind and patient with Knox, spending about 15 minutes with him… and Knox was giving Santa lots of eye contact and responding to him! I couldn’t believe it, it was a true Christmas miracle.
We got a few pictures just in time for Knox to realize he didn’t want to sit still anymore. While I choose and ordered our pictures, the worker “elves” chased Knox around the mall, and I could hear him laughing and screaming with delight the whole time.
As we were leaving, Santa came over and thanked us for coming to see him. He thanked US. I hugged him and said, “because of you, I have this keepsake of my son that I know I wouldn’t have gotten otherwise, and for that I am so grateful”.
Neurodiversity is not a bad thing – and by making connections and demonstrating love, empathy, acceptance and kindness to others we can continue to create a more inclusive world. A world that embraces diversity and provides opportunities to individuals to may not ordinarily have them – that’s the world I want to live in.
