28/11/2025
🎄 Christmas Visitor Guide for Our PDA Home 🎄
As the festive season ramps up, our home gets a little busier, and for a PDA household, that can make things beautifully magical and a little wobbly.
So if you’re visiting us over Christmas, here are a few gentle guidelines to help keep things calm, safe, and enjoyable for everyone.
🎄Your Energy Sets the Tone
When you walk through our door, you’re not just bringing gifts or holiday cheer, you’re bringing energy.
In a PDA home, energy matters. A rushed hello, a loud reaction, or sudden excitement can tip us quickly from connected to overwhelmed. Please tread softly, speak gently, and ease into our space.
🎄 Honour Our Nervous Systems
Christmas can be a sensory avalanche, lights, smells, noise, expectations.
We’re often already operating closer to survival mode this time of year, even if you can’t see it. What feels small to you can feel huge for us. Please give extra patience, space, and understanding.
🎄No Judgement, Only Curiosity
Our Christmas may look different from yours, fewer demands, flexible routines and skipped traditions.
We do what keeps our child (and the rest of us) regulated.
Your job isn’t to fix or correct, it’s simply to be a compassionate ally.
If you’re unsure, quietly ask or follow our lead.
🎄 Respect Our Rhythm
You might notice a calm space set up, a favourite game always nearby, or the need for breaks mid-conversation. That’s on purpose.
Our home is built around emotional safety, not holiday perfection.
Thank you for helping us protect that by staying flexible and low-demand.
🎄 Connection Over Convention
We may not do things the “traditional” way, and that’s okay.
Our priority is a Christmas where everyone feels safe, seen, and able to be themselves.
Your presence, when it’s gentle and respectful, is the best gift you can bring.
🎄 Thank you for meeting our family where we are, not where holiday norms say we “should” be. It means more than you know.