Holiday Gifts for kids with anxiety

My son’s anxiety can sometimes take over his world. It can make it difficult for the easiest of social settings or tasks. When it comes to the holidays, that’s a whole other piece of anxiety pie. I’m not sure if you clicked on this story thinking it would be great ideas of Christmas or birthday gifts for kids with anxiety. But this story is actually about gifts for kids with anxiety to help them settle and be calm. They can be for ANY holiday, or really just any day.

Everyone also has a different experience leading up to the holidays too. When my son was younger he would teeter between not sleeping for the weeks leading up to the holidays and having his ADHD symptoms go out of control. As he aged, his anger and rage got bigger too. For him everything is a big deal. The excitement and uncertainty of what the holiday season will bring makes it almost unbearable for him. Which in turn makes it difficult for family and friends he shares the holidays with. Since every child’s anxiety is different, how they deal with it and what will help calm them will be different too.

Like every parent, we want to make the holidays the best possible time for our children. Whether it’s a present under the tree, time with family or just trying to help them not melt down every day of the holidays, as parents we try! Perhaps if you have an elf on the shelf, your elf can bring them an early gift that will help them get through the lead up to the holidays.

Here are some of the best gifts I have found to help my son with his anxiety.

Weighted Blanket

I was on the fence about getting one of these for my son. I did a lot of reading and much of it focused on the importance for making sure the weight is appropriate to the child’s size. The price is coming down and you can find these blankets anywhere, including Costco! It may not work for everyone, but I do have to say that it has been helping my son with relaxing and falling to sleep earlier at nights since he got it.

Protip: Make sure the weighted sections are sewn into the blanket. If they are not, the weighted pieces will all fall to the bottom of one section.

My sons review is that “it’s like a big hug.”

Stress Toys

The big rush for wide-spread ‘must-have fad’ status fidget spinners may be gone, but stress and fidget toys do serve a purpose. Fidget spinners are sensory toys originally created to increase focus and reduce fidgeting. Same as stress balls, fidget cubes and fidget spinners are sensory toys and can help children calm. squeezing a stress ball in time with four slow breaths or flicking a fidget spinner are both forms of rapid stress management technique (RSMT).

One of the best thing about stress toys is that you can buy them anywhere. And they are fun for parents too…. perhaps you can squish a stress ball when you feel like losing it at your kids… for me I would be doing that 24/7!

Calming Glitter Bottle

At first you may think this is a great idea for little girls with anxiety. You would be WRONG> Any kid will love sitting and watching the swirling glitters, orbeez or whatever you choose to put in your calming bottles. For inspiration for these I head back to Pinterest for ideas. Like most kids, my daughter spends all her time on YouTube watching DIY videos… but for me, I go straight to Pinterest.

This is a great easy gift that siblings can make and give to each other.

Here are links to some of the best instructional stories/videos.

Photo from: https://littlebinsforlittlehands.com/

Especially Education has a great step-by-step with photos for their DIY sensory bottles.

Counselor Keri has great options with their 5 easy calming bottles, including one that will remind you of the ocean.

Good to Know shows you how to turn a mason jar into a glitter jar.

And once again the Amazing Little Bins for Little Hands has a great tutorial for making calming glitter sensory bottles. If your not into calming bottles, check out their other tutorials, they have a TON of arts and crafts projects for all ages and interests. They are one of my favorite go-to resources. They have another story that shows 21 different sensory bottles for kids, including a Star Wars option.

My kids review: “it’s so satisfying”… am I the only mom who hates that phrase?

Bath Bombs with lavender or lavender spray

Sleep is one of the most important things to helping with anxiety. It’s a viscous circle. Sleep deprivation can increase anxiety and the more anxious you are the harder it is to sleep. It’s cruel really when you think about it. Sleep is the thing they need the most and is something the hardest thing for them. Then I got to thinking. When my kids were babies I would use lavender in their bath at night to help them sleep better. So I gave it a try. I got him to used lavender scented bath products and take a relaxing bath at night. It worked, but he doesn’t always take a bath every night, so we tried lavender essences in a diffuser, lavender bath spray, lavender broom spray and basically every lavender thing I could find. They work to certain degrees and to be honest as my son got older he just didn’t want to smell like lavender. But we still use the pillow spray and diffuser all the time.

I guess this one is a gift for kids with anxiety, but it may be more of a gift for the parents of kids with anxiety.

A painted ‘Bee’ rock.

This is one that I love, and not just because my daughter recently received a rock painting kit! It’s the concept that I love! You can really use this for visual cue for kids to ‘bee kind’, ‘bee happy’, or it will’bee okay”. This is a good way to let kids know they will ‘BEE fine’.

The concept is simple really. They can carry the ‘bee’ in their pocket so they always feel you will ‘bee with them’. having the rock can give them a sense of control and comfort. As they get used to the ‘bee’ being with them and they can rub it or make a buzzing noise when they feel anxious.