What my special needs daughter taught me about Christmas

Keep it simple. Breathe.

Take the holiday season day by day.
(Image credit: EyeEm / Alamy Stock Photo)

A few weeks ago, I watched the Rockefeller Center tree lighting on television with my kids. There was much Christmas music and dancing, interspersed with commercials about the holiday and what to buy. At one point, Al Roker cheerily announced, "Christmas is here!"

On cue, my 15-year-old daughter, who has a form of autism, sat up and asked when we were leaving for Grandma's house. "Not for a few weeks," I said. And then I tried to prevent my daughter from having a full-fledged meltdown because we were not immediately packing up to go over the river and through the woods.

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Eileen Flood O'Connor is a writer and mother of four children, the oldest of whom has an autistic spectrum disorder. She graduated from the University of Virginia, holds an MA in literature from University of London, and attended Columbia School of Journalism.