You Know You’re Having an ADHD Christmas When…….
- You tell everyone to bring a dish…and can’t remember what everyone said they’d bring…so you end up with 12 dozen cheese balls.
- You go to Meijers or another 24/7 box store 3 hours before Christmas Eve to buy stocking stuffers.
- Your kids wake up Christmas morning at 5am and are still waiting for you at noon to come down, because you didn’t start wrapping presents until 1am and are too sleep deprived to get up.
- You cut into the turkey only to find a plastic bag full of giblets.
- You wrap the gifts with birthday wrapping paper because you waited until the last minute to get Christmas paper.
- You forgot to put the dishes through the dishwasher that morning, so it’s paper plates. Again.
- You send out your holiday cards on New Years Day.
- For my Jewish friends/family: You walk around with red, raw knuckles for a week because you can’t judge how far the potato/onion grater is from your hand.
- You forget to put names on the presents, so you have to unwrap and re-wrap them all over again.
- You procrastinated taking down the holiday lights last year so BONUS– all you have to do is plug them in THIS year.
Ok, I need one more- I only have 10. That’s where YOU come in. Post your funny ADD holiday story/tip in the Comment section below by Dec. 25, 2019 and one lucky reader will win a free copy of one of my ADHD eWorkbooks, seen here, at the bottom of the page
NOTE: CONTEST IS NOW OVER AND THE WINNER HAS BEEN NOTIFIED.
I will choose the funniest one and share it in the next newsletter/blog. Posting it means you give me permission to post it on my blog, my newsletter, in social media, etc. as well. I will use your first name only unless you request otherwise (you can use a pseudonym).
By submitting your story, you will be subscribed to my newsletter (you can unsubscribe at any time).
Winners will be contacted via email by December 31, 2019 Good luck!
PS: Looking for gift ideas perfect for your ADHD family members? Check out my favorite picks HERE.
Spent 2+ hrs trying to find the hidden Santa gifts you got on sale in October and can’t remember where you stashed them. Sometimes you don’t find them until spring and just have a good laugh at yourself.
The tree is decorated with cool stuff from your miniatures collection, you invite people over and forget to buy any snacks and drinks.
My daughter asked me to grab mead, which her boyfriend never tried, when she came over. I kept putting it off so instead planned a tour with them of the meadery when they showed up (we do traditional Yule on the 21st).
When you get the kids up on Christmas Day and get them ready for school.
You know it’s Christmas when… you forgot to get your colleagues a gift, so you announce you are treating them all to lunch! Pretend it was planned all along!
You know your having an ADHD Christmas when, you’ve put top-secret Santa then loose it and have to but another
The only decorations you have up yet are the ones you forgot to take down last year.
You ask your family/friends when they plan on getting a Christmas tree after walking past it 6 times.
The kids finally figure out there is no Santa when they see the “white footprints” from the fireplace leading straight up into your bedroom.
You make yourself a checklist to keep yourself more organized, on schedule, and not miss out on crafts, projects, card sending etc., that never get to do because you always wait until the last minute to start things. You put the list in your Christmas box so you don’t have to worry about losing it or forgetting it. You find the list the following Christmas on December 20th because you waited until the last minute to get our your Christmas boxes.
You order your (also ADHD) Dad a keychain alarm, forget that you ordered it, buy the same thing at the store, lose that one, and then are really confused when you go to wrap presents and there are 2.
Your Holiday tree is only half decorated on December 21, packages are not mailed and the gifts and half way wrapped…you can’t find the three boxes of menorah candles you bought last year… but your advanced degree college classes are finished with amazing grades, and your continuing education course work is finished… and your licensing paperwork that isn’t due until JULY is completely filled out and waiting… and your house looks like a category 5 hurricane came through. Then… you get a call from your TWO college age kids wondering if you are coming to the airport?? To pick them up?? Mom?? Mom??
Christmas has always been my favorite time of year. I love buying gifts and watching people open them. BUT when you have ADHD and go Christmas shopping alone you may end up coming home with 5 things for you while looking for other people’s gifts! LOL or you might forget you’ve already bought and put away their gift and buy another one only to find the others later. At least my nieces and nephews make out every year but damn that ADHD spending
Wow- such great comments! Keep them coming!
You think of a great gift idea. Buy it, bring it home, go to hid it in your collection of Christmas gifts and are faced with its doppelgänger that you bought last time you were out shopping. Now your faced with two choices. Return it or think of someone else who would love that gift. Now the next time you go shopping you will remember that you thought of the perfect gift for so and so but you will forget that you already have one because out of sight is out of mind; so now you have 3……..
You find ONE store online that has the three matching shirts for your boys, but you have them shipped to your old address in another state! You reorder, can’t figure out why it costs so much more, until they are delivered and you realize that you accidentally ordered an extra shirt!
You end up vacuuming a quart of tiny pebbles and broken glass out of your kitchen sink and disposal. And the olive tree in your dining room becomes your Christmas tree.??♀️
When you try to actually getting things done for your exams next month but get distracted with sorting and tidying the entire house. It is Christmas soon! ?
You keep finding gifts you had meant to give years before and keep losing this years gifts. Also, did I wrap the remote… again?
You are responsible for making banana pudding. You forget to go grocery shopping so you use soy milk to make pudding only to realize 6 hours later when you go to assemble it that you have pudding soup because the pudding never thickened.
When it’s past midnight on Christmas (morning) and you just got home from church… the Pope’s Mass is on the TV and YOU are still wrapping the Christmas gifts! (My story for several years running!)
You get the BEST ideas for creative, awesome things you can make your your family and friends… on Christmas eve.
Oh so many…
You are so proud of yourself that you started Christmas shopping in September but now can’t remember where you hid the presents. While looking, you find the lost toys that your couldn’t find for your Easter baskets last year!
when…every Christmas you end up super stressed and say “I’m for sure going to start preparing earlier next year!”…knowing it probably won’t happen…and it doesn’t. The day after Christmas is my favorite day of the year.
You know you’re having an ADD Christmas when you dig out your house decorations and wonder why you’re miss a candle holder. You put the mate to it aside and assume it will turn up at some point. Hours later, you still haven’t found it. As you walk to the garage to look in boxes, you smack your head with your hand and say, “Ohhh yaaaa! That’s the one that burned to a crisp and nearly burned the house down, as the whole family was watching a movie in a different room!” The dining room candle had burned all the way down to the bottom and the decoration around the bottom of the candle holder ignited! All of a sudden we could see flames from where we were sitting!!! Fortunately, only the candle holder burned!
You know you’re having an ADHD xmas, when you purchase way too many presents for your mum, because you forgot that you already bought a gift or three during the course of the year; and now you aren’t sure if you should wrap them all, or save a couple for another occasion, (birthdays, or whatever).
You procrastinate buying a real Christmas tree just long enough for the stores to run out, which means you surprise the family with a giant, noisy blow-up Santa instead. The kids love it, but all you can hear is the sound of the fan.
You do your xmas shopping well in advance, but every time you have to hit the shops for milk and bread, you end up falling in love with everything else and end up doing several lots of xmas shopping – not saving money or time in the end!!!
Great article
You go to Kroger’s Super Store on the 23rd because you realize you only have one gift for your husband and bought 2 for your sister.
You find presents hidden later that you forgot to wrap and then just give it to the person unwrapped.
Oh and one year I had decided not to buy presents for anyone besides my child because I just couldn’t deal with the stress due to my procrastination and perfectionism. Come Christmas Eve our family was gathering at grandma’s. I drove my brother to Walgreen’s for him to pick something up real quick and ended up spending over an hour or so there because I decided then and there that I wanted to buy everyone presents. He was mad at me cuz we were so late. 😬😩 Then I went into grandma’s bedroom to wrap it all. 😬 Didn’t get to spend much time with family that Christmas. 😩
You sigh with relief when you learned that you don’t have to cook Christmas dinner! Family informed you, we will be meeting at a friend’s house and all I have to bring is an appetizer. Now calming down because I don’t have to make a mad dash to clean up the house, cook, and do all the things I wouldn’t have finished by tomorrow anyway! WHEW!!!
You go to two stores and lunch, then you are completely exhausted.
You go to a mall on Christmas Eve buy the last present you need and still stress out because of crowds in the mall at 9:45am.
When you give someone “money” mainly because you didn’t get out to actually SHOP for a gift soon enough!
You start shopping for the 1st time in mid-November because…Vyvanse and Amazon Prime Christmas music stations are a thing now! You balance the # of presents ordered on Amazon for each kid, wrap them on Dec 20th when everyone is gone, sneak them downstairs & don’t tell anyone they are there. It is your smug little secret—you DID it this year, and didn’t go to a single store!!! But…something is still missing—the element of last minute crazy fun, so you brave the very Christmas Eve traffic & stores you swore to avoid, STILL wind up wrapping all the extra presents Christmas morning, and whaddya know, but those levitating/flying fans and mini Nerf guns from Fry’s wind up being what gets you the illusive “You won Christmas, Mom” look/hug from your teenage/college boys because you “get” them in a way that normal Moms just can’t (Nerf guns are banned on your son’s college campus.?♀️?) Yes, ADD sucks, but can also be what makes you awesome, my Systers, IF you embrace the crazy! Let’s put the “fun” in dysfunctional!!!
My daughter says she loves getting presents throughout the year….that is because I hide them and then I can’t find them for months!
Since the corona virus precludes anyone stopping in, you’ve decorated nothing but the front of your house with a fresh wreath. The only Christmas items you’ve brought up from the basement is the wrapping paper and bows. You are impulsively ordering gifts on Amazon, paying for them being gift wrapped and sent directly to the person. You’re not quite sure how much you’ve spent on gifts for people this year… And, no you’re not baking anything, much less Christmas cookies!
Exactly! Small Christmas was so much better…not sure if I will ever go back!
Maybe once I have grand kids or something…at is not on the horizon anytime soon!
Happy New Year!