How did your 5 and 7 year olds behave on Christmas Day?

[aweebitlost]

Background - we are starting process for SN diagnosis with DS (age 5). He had quite a few angry episodes over the course of the day yesterday but I guess that's not too surprising given the background.

However. DD (7) was also pretty shouty at times yesterday. She's an extremely kind and thoughtful child, very helpful, very grateful for all her gifts. But I think she found the emotion of the day overwhelming (e.g. she had a huge cry at about 4pm about Christmas being over).

Last Christmas was very similar in that it was just the 5 of us at home but it was glorious. No shouting or upsets. The previous year we were on holiday and it was also great. This one felt really disappointing in contrast.

I suppose I'm wondering how other 5 and 7 year old founds it? I would expect the odd cry/upset from toddlers - so much excitement and sugar etc - though funnily enough our 3 year old was an absolute dream yesterday. But is it normal for 7 year olds to still get upset and cross on Christmas?! We had the day as low key as possible to mirror last year.

3yo was fine. Older DS at those ages often behaved a bit silly at Christmas.

@Goldbar
😂😂😂
Good luck with bedtime tonight.

From the other side, we were visitors where a 5 and 7 year old were yesterday, and with another set of similar age today.

It was quite different. Yesterday’s sat through the Christmas dinner…ate a bit, played with their cracker toys at the table and waited until everyone had finished puddingnto ask to leave the table. I think there was one burst of tears from the 7 year old late afternoon, when one of the toys didn’t work properly.

Today, diffferent 5 and 7 year old. The whole day revolved around them. They were asked which chairs they wanted at the table and chose then directed everyone else where to sit, and then changed their mi d twice and all the adults had to move as the parents expected the children’s orders to be obeyed. Both children turned up their noses at the food and said ‘yuck’ and the parents then asked the host if they would ‘just make them a cheese sandwich’ whilst the hosts food went cold on their plate.

To be fair, it really wasn’t the children who cause all this, but the parents in both scenarios .

My 7yo was up at 3.10am 😴

That sounds a very interesting dinner today @WombatChocolate
Did you not enjoy musical chairs 😄😄

My 5 year old was a little whiny on Xmas Eve and Xmas Day, but overall not too badly behaved. My 9 year old on the other hand has been an absolute horror

I swear she gets worse each passing year, like she simply can't cope with the anticipation. I think Next year I'll go to parents for Xmas as she's better behaved when Nannas around

Ds 9 had SEN and he was very emotional christmas eve, Christmas day and today. Have had a few outbursts. Always the same at Christmas. Hoping he settles over the next few days when a more normal routine resumes

So glad to find this thread I came on here looking as we’ve had the worst tantrums this Christmas mainly led by my 4 year old (year R) DD and my 3 year old DS seems to follow her lead!! I had to take her upstairs during dinner and she was going crazy screaming and hitting me, I just sat calmly although could have cried and she eventually calmed down!! I’m glad to see this is normal as I thought it must be some emotional overload as she’s been a nightmare through the build up so hoping for a calmer week ahead now it’s over!!

My 6 year old was fine thankfully.

I can remember as a child ending up crying most years on Christmas Day. It can be very overwhelming and a combination of tiredness, sugar, getting over excited. You certainly won't be the only one.

My children have sen needs so it was quite overwhelming for them it took 3 hours to open presents and lots of tantrums

aweebitlost

I'd say we had a fairly relaxing build up. I don't book much because I find December is busy enough without the added events. We went to a Christmas village last weekend which was busy and exciting, that was it really.
5yo goes to a very gentle, nature focused outdoor nursery so that was business as usual. The only thing they did was make lanterns and have carols round the fire! 7yo didn't have masses going on at school either. No show or Santa or anything. I think there is still a lot of excitement nonetheless.

That sounds like a really nice relaxed start to Christmas! Maybe it's just the excitement of the actual day that set them off.

Surprisingly calm couple of days for my autistic 7 year old. She only had 2 hours sleep on Christmas Eve though, so I think she was somewhat too tired to get over-excited on Christmas day. We had a bit of shouting this morning as she and the eldest (also autistic) clashed over the rules of something they were playing.
No pressure on them though. They were able to eat separately and eat what they wanted, and not expected to sit at the table for a roast (nt siblings did). A walk each day has helped, as did the fact that granny was otherwise occupied with other family members so not constantly overwhelming them with questions, pointless demands, and more questions.
Also we didn't meet with extended family until 1pm and were home by 6pm.
I think our other helpful thing this year was they all had a small number of presents at our house (4 each) and then 4 at grandparents house and we have given them all a box to contain their presents until they are properly put away in a few days- still available to play with, but non of the clutter and chaos which overwhelms the autistic two, and makes a mess in general.