For me, I understand that I am lucky my disability surfaced when M was older. I had the chance to do all the nativity plays and Santa visits before my body started to deteriorate. But that doesn’t mean I find everything easier and I do feel bad that he used to have a fully functioning mama but now he has to do a lot of the heavy lifting so to speak. We’ve lost a lot of our traditions and he can remember the fun times which I think can lead to some understandable resentment. Its hard having to essentially overhaul your life and around Christmas time, it is a lot more obvious of the changes.

I’m not giving up though. Partially cause I’m too stubborn but mostly because M is such an awesome kid who has been through a lot and I want to continue to make happy Christmas memories for him. Just, in a more adaptive way. So I’ve decided this year I’m streamlining Christmas. Cherry picking things that I find work best of us and dropping what now seems superficial in the wake of a life changing disability. Just cause it works for us however doesn’t mean it will fit your family, but I wanted to share with you all in case I can help you make your Christmas’ that little bit easier.


Take advantage of delivery services – Sometimes getting out to the supermarket is daunting, but you have to eat so get them to bring your food to you. I buy the Morrisons mid-week delivery pass every year. It gives me free delivery on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays. They have a minimum order of £25 which is lower than most supermarkets and they price match with Aldi and Lidl for a lot of items. I can pick a delivery time when M is home to help me unload the shopping, but I’m sure if I asked the delivery driver would bring the delivery crates into the kitchen for me rather than me unpack at the door. I also love the Iceland delivery as they still use bags which I can drag to the kitchen much easier than unloading from the large crates. They have some fantastic offers with ready meals too, for days when I’m too sore to do much more than throw something in the oven and they do 3 for £10 on lots of items including meat.


Simplify the Christmas dinner – It’s just M and I in the house, which makes cooking very simple. For the big Christmas dinner we use disposable foil trays for 80% of the cooking. We buy a chicken joint and/or a ham joint from Iceland which cooks in the foil tray. Things like roast potatoes, parsnips, carrots etc can also be thrown in a foil tray and popped in the oven. For things like broccoli and mash, I buy frozen which gets microwaved, though this year I’m tempted to try the Morrisons best ready-made mash. Again though its already cooked so I don’t have to deal with pealing potatoes and mashing them up. It also reduced the washing up afterwards. One foil tray will have all the leftovers to put in the fridge for boxing day and the rest is in the bin. Just the plates and cutlery really to wash.

Look for accessibility shopping areas – If I’m going to use my spoons on a day out with M Christmas shopping, I look for the accessible shopping areas, sometimes called Shopmobility. They let you borrow wheelchairs and powered scooters to use around the shopping centre. I drive a smart car so borrowing one of their wheelchairs instead of bringing mine leaves my boot free for shopping and because I’m not having to walk around, I can last longer. You can check online to see what is available in the shopping centre or high-street you are going to. Shopmobility have their own site too.

Be honest with family and friends – While Christmas time is all about family, sometimes the idea of going to visit everyone sounds daunting. Be honest with what you can manage. Ask them to come to you, rather than you go to them. Traveling will use up a lot of energy and can burn you out before you even get your dinner. You can always arrange meeting up before and after too. Most of my family live in England so I can’t really see them as much as I would like but we video call and for my dad who lives near me, I arrange to see him before Christmas, usually going out for a festive dinner somewhere. It saves Christmas day for just M and I and takes the pressure off feeling like I need to see everyone. We can just relax and enjoy our day, usually in jammies and eating lots of yummy food and sweet treats.


Be honest with yourself – I’m terrible for trying to do everything like I could before, but if your living with a chronic condition then you know that’s just a bad idea. If I push myself to do too much, my body will react and I can spend the next few days barely making it out of bed due to the pain. If I really push myself like I did mid-November, it can cause a flare and I’m about as much use as a chocolate teapot. I’m coming up to 3 weeks of this flare up and only in the last day or two have I been semi functional. It’s a bad idea! Don’t do it! I get that this is such a busy time of year and if you have small children it’s even more chaotic but at the same time, you cant do it all. It’s a hard pill to swallow and I get that, but all I can say is pace yourself. Take rest days, you don’t have to do everything and there is no shame if you need to whittle everything down to the bare minimum.

Christmas can be stressful but I’m trying to make it more chronic friendly. Fingers and toes crossed it’s a chilled as I’m planning. I guess I’ll let you know in the new year.