The last week before Christmas. What children actually need.

The last week of school before Christmas is, clinically, one of the most overstimulated periods in the child's year. The school is decorated, the schedule is disrupted, there are performances and parties and special events, the children are consuming more sugar than usual, and the collective excitement is such that the nervous system of even the most regulated child is working harder than it should have to.

I say this not to be a Scrooge about Christmas — I enjoy Christmas, in Vienna it is taken seriously and done well. I say it because the child who arrives at Christmas break already overstimulated has less capacity for what Christmas actually offers: the slow time, the family presence, the departure from ordinary schedules. The container has to have space in it. The overstimulated child arrives at Christmas with a full container.

The December last week is the week when the family's nervous system is making its final preparations for the holiday. If the preparations are chaotic, the holiday arrives from chaos. If the preparations are ordinary, the holiday arrives from stability. The stability is what allows the extraordinary to feel extraordinary. This is the specific thing that produces the change. The change comes from the practice. The practice comes from the