Why the Holidays Are Extra Hard for Spicy Kids (and What You Can Do to Feel Less On Edge)

December 3, 2025

Every year around this time, parents of spicy kids quietly start bracing themselves.
You probably know exactly why.The holidays are supposed to feel magical. Slower. Full of memories and togetherness.
But with a spicy kid, it can feel like the volume gets turned up on everything. The joy. The anticipation. The disappointment. The pressure. The shame. The noise. The unraveling. And parents tell me the same thing every December. And parents tell me the same thing every December.

It feels like they’re walking into a month-long marathon where the routine is different, expectations are higher, and the stakes feel impossibly big.

When you have a sensitive, intense, deeply feeling child, the holidays have a way of being all of their triggers (over excitement, unpredictability, lack of routine, late nights). Here’s what I want you to know.
They are not doing this on purpose.
They are not trying to ruin anything.
They are operating with a nervous system that gets overloaded faster and recovers slower.

If you’ve noticed that things feel harder in December, it’s because they are.
The routine your child depends on suddenly disappears.


There are late nights and family gatherings and new foods and different smells and cousins and people watching and the feeling of being on display.
There are surprises and transitions and sugar and way more decisions than usual.
Your child is swimming in sensory and emotional input and there is no predictability in sight.

Parents tell me that their child can go from calm to chaotic in seconds.
One minute they’re excited. The next minute they’re melting down because the cookie broke or someone moved their stocking or they were handed a gift they didn’t expect. And you can feel their shame rising before the first tear even falls.

Spicy kids live in the extremes.
hey feel joy big.
They feel disappointment big.
They feel the pressure to behave a certain way big.
And when something unexpected happens, they don’t have the buffer that other kids naturally have

One mom recently told me she felt like she spent the entire holiday season trying to prevent explosions instead of actually enjoying any of it.
Another parent told me they dread the moment family members start whispering about her child “being too much.”
Someone else said December feels like a test she’s always failing.

You are not failing.
You are parenting a child who needs more support than the season naturally provides.

What helps the most is preparation.
Wherever you can over the holidays:


Making the unexpected expected.
Regulating them before you are in those chaotic situations.
Understanding what actually pushes your child up the wave so you’re not blindsided.
And knowing what to do when things start spiraling.

Inside the Spicy Kid Bundle, you’ll find the exact resources that make the biggest difference during this time of year. Parents tell me these tools completely shifted how they moved through December because they finally understood what was happening beneath the behaviour.

And this month, when you grab the bundle, you’ll also get the Holiday Survival Guide as a bonus.

It gives you simple Before, During, and After ideas for the hardest holiday moments. Things like late nights, sensory overload, cousins, family judgment, gift opening, travel days, and those meltdowns you can feel coming from across the room.


You don’t have to dread the next few weeks.
You can actually enjoy them.
And your child can too.

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Hi, I’m Myla Leinweber—a parent educator, coach, and former kindergarten teacher. I help overwhelmed parents of strong-willed, sensitive, or intense kids understand what’s really behind their child’s behavior so they can respond with confidence instead of confusion.

After years of working with families—and being a parent of a spicy kid myself—I created a practical, research-informed framework that supports parents without shame, bribes, or power struggles.

This blog shares stories, tools, and real-life examples to help you decode your child’s behaviour and find more calm and connection.

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 with the free Spicy Kid Guide


© Joyful Parents 2025