Being a Tubie this holiday season.
Faye shares her top tips for the festive season as a tube fed adult.
This article shares Faye’s personal experience of tube feeding. All views expressed belong to Faye and do not necessarily reflect those of Talking Tube Feeding.
The holiday season can be stressful. A change to a normal routine, seeing people you’ve not seen in a long time, a buzz around the place with emotions both positive and negative. And the centrepiece of it all seems to revolve around food. But that doesn’t mean us Tubies have to miss out on all the fun, here are my handy tips for celebrating this holiday season that don’t involve food.
1: Advent Calendars
The first food item to really come up around Christmas is a chocolate advent calendar, nowadays there are so many non-food alternatives ranging from bath and beauty advent calendars to toy advent calendars, perfect for getting in the Christmas spirit and not missing out!
2: Presents
Christmas is a time when you’re more likely to see a distant aunt or cousin thrice removed that may not know that you have a feeding tube. Talk to your closest friends and relatives first and discuss your need for non-food items. This can reduce the chance of facing a present that you can't enjoy or make you feel like you’re missing out. If you feel able to discuss with further relatives that may come to visit or buy you presents about your feeding tube or just mention your preference for non-food items, this reduces the chance further. Plus you can always plan for the day where you do receive food items and have a pre-prepared plan that you’re going to give them to family or donate them to your local food banks or homeless charities, this way you’re spreading the Christmas cheer too!
3: Christmas Dinner
The main event that really centres around food.
Communication and planning are key. Talk to your family ahead of time about your comfortability around food and come up with a plan that suits all, after all we shouldn't stop our family from engaging in a meal just because we can’t eat it. If you would prefer to be out of the room when everyone is eating, you could prearrange a Christmas activity like colouring a Christmas scene, settling down and watching a Christmas movie, playing on a games console or with toys, crochet or knit, or read a nice book. If you prefer to be at the table and soaking in the atmosphere, take an activity to engage with so you can still join in with conversation and around ‘the vibe’. This could be something light like colouring or a wordsearch.
4: Traditions
Every Christmas day is different for everyone and the great thing about this is that you can create your own traditions.
The biggest part of my Christmas day is the evening when everyone gathers together and we play games like pass the parcel, pin the nose on the reindeer, charades and plenty more. Why not start your own tradition of a Christmas activity this year?
Christmas can still be an exciting time of year, yes, we may need to make some adaptations and it may not look like other people’s Christmas day, but that’s ok!
The key to the holiday season is connecting with friends and family whether that’s over a meal or a tradition.
