The holiday season is here again—a time for connection, tradition, and thoughtful celebration. As we prepare for the festivities, it’s important to make sure everyone can join in the joy, including blind children as well as those with other disabilities.
While creating an inclusive experience can feel challenging, below are some general tips and resources to support you. From accessible gift ideas to inclusive traditions, these suggestions are designed to make the season meaningful for every child. Though some materials focus on blind children, much of the guidance can be adapted for kids with a wide range of needs.
Five Festive Tips for Including your Child with a Disability in the Holiday Fun
1. Decorating is not just for the tree (if your family incorporates that tradition). Find ways to include other sensory experiences that make their space feel like something special. Animated decorations that play music can be great fun and are easy to find this time of year. Adding garland, stockings, or other decorations that can be “touched” at the child’s level can also be fun and engaging. Having your child help place the decorations will not only help them feel part of the festivities, but also remind them what is different about their environment.
2. Create a holiday sensory bin that contains items that are meaningful to the holiday your family celebrates and other items that are commonly found in their environment during this time of year. Ideas include jingle bells, dreidels, cinnamon sticks, pine cones, felt ribbons…the possibilities are endless!
3. Holiday baking is a great way to bond as a family. There are lots of ways to include children in the process, even if it is as simple as dumping a cup of pre-measured flour into a bowl or having them set a timer by asking your virtual assistant of choice to do it for them. Even adding sprinkles to cookies can be fun. And don’t forget all the smells of the spices!
4. Wrapping gifts can be a very inclusive experience if incorporating bags, stickers, or tags with glitter or other tactile elements. The child may enjoy adding these elements to packages for their loved ones to help make them “special”. Also, adding these elements to gifts being given to children who are blind or visually impaired will make the package more “interesting”. Adding jingle bells to the ribbons on a package is a fun way to add to the experience of unwrapping presents.
5. Narrate events that are visual. Describe the lights on the houses in the neighborhood or floats on the parade. Explain what is happening during family gatherings (especially when gifts are being opened since often all they hear is tearing paper and a few comments on the gift, but there may not be information on what the gift is or who received it).
The most important thing to remember is that the holidays are special and unique to every family. The lights maybe don’t need to be exactly straight and the cookies might not look like you’d imagined they would. But the memories will be the most important thing you are creating. Those are irreplaceable and worth all the crooked lights and misshapen cookies in the world.
Resources:
APH Connect Center: Making Winter Holiday Traditions Accessible
APH Connect Center: You Can Touch the Elf on the Shelf – A Letter from Santa Claus
Lighthouse Guild: Making the Holidays Bright for Children with Visual Impairment
Paths to Literacy: 10 Ways to Include your Child in the Christmas Fun!
Perkins: 2025 Holiday Gift Guide for all: Embrace the spirit of inclusion