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4. What Christmas means to me
413 Plays2 years ago
This Christmas we're focusing on what the festive season means to autistic people and their families, and how to make the big day more inclusive. So, welcome to a Christmas takeover by pupils and teachers at our Mackenzie Thorpe Centre school in South Bank, Middlesbrough, as they explain what Christmas means to them .. from sinister Santa to stress-free nativity shows.
Music: Aukestra
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Transcript
Introduction to Mackenzie Thorpe Centre and Christmas Schedule
00:00:01
Speaker
Hello and welcome to Mackenzie Thorpe. We currently have 30 pupils in school aged 5 to 19 and we are having such a busy time running up to Christmas. Things are just fabulous. So I'm Lucy Sinclair. I'm the interim vice principal for Mackenzie Thorpe Centre. It's busy, it's fun and the children are really enjoying all the different activities. Lots of preparation going in to support the children understanding what's going on, preparing them for the change as well.
00:00:31
Speaker
They still follow, they still have the timetable but we put in a lot of preparation in terms of using the visuals to support them in understanding what's going to be happening. So if they have the visual cards to explain on the timetables they might have English so it'll just
00:00:48
Speaker
be a picture of school writing with a pen, maths, we'll have some maths symbols on, she'll have some food on and these cards will be on
Adaptation and Sensory Management for Christmas
00:01:00
Speaker
the timetable so they'll know what's coming on next throughout the day. So we prepare lots of visuals, different visuals to show what's going on with the Christmas, so it could be we're having a Christmas bake off and there would have been a Christmas assembly visuals on there so the children are aware of what's going on.
00:01:18
Speaker
We've slowly prepared the children the decorations, we've had meetings with the teachers and staff to explain that.
00:01:26
Speaker
the decoration should be done slowly and gradually in front of the children so they can see what's happening and they're prepared to know what they're coming into the class each day. It'll be completely different for them and a lot of children within the setting don't like a lot of change so and they find the teachers and staff have worked really hard to make sure that the environment is a safe and secure environment for the children so when
00:01:55
Speaker
things are changed such as the decorations and the Christmas trees, budging walk. The children are there preparing it with the staff so when they come in it's there, they know what's happening. So the craft activities as well, it could be that there's too much sensory overload for them if they're using a lot of bright colours, different textures, lots of glitter. You know what the advice I'd give is just to keep the crafts
00:02:23
Speaker
quite minimal if you can make sure that they're all finished and the children can see what they're doing. I'm very excited about Christmas but it's again keeping an eye on them and making sure that they don't get too, not to say, not too excited because that's a good thing but it could be the point where they get so excited that they can't handle that emotion.
00:02:54
Speaker
So how old are you Dad? Ten. And what class are you in in Mackenzieville? Three. Class three. And do you like Christmas? Yeah. Why? What do you like about it? Well, it's been telling me a family. I mean, it's good food, there's presents, there's just... Everyone's there, you get to talk to each other and enjoy yourselves as a family. That sounds lovely. You make it
Children's Theories and Ethical Questions about Santa
00:03:20
Speaker
sound great. So what are you hoping to get for Christmas this year?
00:03:24
Speaker
A very long, long, long list that's been split into half between my birthday and Christmas. Are you going to see Santa this year? I don't know. I mean you will see Santa because if you see Santa you don't get presents. Why? Because technically you're not supposed to see Santa as myths that go around, isn't there? You see Santa.
00:03:49
Speaker
Can we get presents in the tree? That won't be fun. Yeah, it's an interesting theory. Yeah, there's a bunch of theories that go round, but which one's true? Or what if there's no such thing as Santa, and it's God? Because if you think about it, how would there be two magical beings that have the power to teleport, and all these earthbending powers and stuff, and there's two of them? You'd think there would be giant arguments all the time, wouldn't you?
00:04:18
Speaker
But if they're just the exact same person, they can't be argued with the exact same person. So you think God and Santa are the same person? Well, Santa is, yeah. Because if you really think about it, when you pray, you pray for something. On Christmas, everything you've prayed for is there. Oh. Couldn't we not? I mean, think about it. Your family's all happy. You pray for that. You pray for presents. You pray for, like, a bunch of toys and stuff. That's all there. So... It's an interesting thing. It really is.
00:04:49
Speaker
Interesting. I was thinking about that all the way home now. So, right, I was going to ask you what you thought of Santa, but, baby, I've just told you some feeling about Santa. Yeah, you don't know if you can be real or fake or what if it's just somebody who... But have you ever thought of this? Isn't it definitely breaking and entering?
00:05:09
Speaker
Genuinely, isn't it breaking and entering? It's not entering your house without permission. Hang on, what did you have here today, though? What did you bring in school? A magic Santa key. There you go, so you can't be breaking and entering, it's got a key. But also, how the hell are you supposed to get the key inside your house without breaking and entering to get the key to break and enter? We handle the key on the outside of the door. You don't, though. We're told. We leave it inside our house. Well, maybe that's where you're going, mum.
00:05:35
Speaker
either teleports in the house or even, you probably just teleports. I mean, have you ever thought of that? Do you know what something does in your house while you're gone? Like genuinely, what if he's just doing a bunch of random stuff? I don't know where I thought of this. You're just washing up, Fabi. Yeah, you go in your kitchen, smashes all your distance, they're clean now. No! He goes and robs his computer and sells it in a black market.
00:06:01
Speaker
And people won't come and move. I'll walk inside if we're breaking an entrance. You can have some cookies. Have some cookies and milk for breaking an entrance. You never know what something's going to be doing in your house. If you don't think by it, does he even go out to your house?
00:06:21
Speaker
Helping elves that do a bunch of mischievous stuff, but they leave you presents to say sorry. Some people do have those, don't they? Exactly, I do. They're amazing. An elf in your house? Once I TPed a house, that was amazing. The house? This is a dining room. It was great fun, though. If you had a TPed out in a dining house, that would have been amazing. I'd be like, yay! I'm going back to bed. Is it elf visiting this year?
00:06:46
Speaker
I would've loved my elves. They came from days ago. So far, nothing much, apart from Strangle, Little, and other Teddy. They said it was his now, but then we left him all morning with a rope tie around his neck. So, well, I wouldn't say he's exactly alive anymore, Yoshi, but... Oh, poor Yoshi. Those elves sound very...
00:07:06
Speaker
Yeah, so it's very good. They did try to fix something. So pretty much right. I've got, I've never got a theory. Right. I've got multiple theories. Like one of them, I have got, so I asked the old something to do without telling my parents, nothing happened. But when I tell my parents suddenly something happens.
00:07:25
Speaker
Also, another thing, does Santa just enslave elves to force them to do his dirty work? Yes. Exactly. Slavery back at it again, going all the way around. So you're saying Santa's not a very nice person? I mean, you've got to think about it. Has Santa ever proven that he's a good person? Apart from bringing your presents? He brings your presents, right? How do you know that's not just a guy? If a criminal who's a mass murderer gave you a present, what would you give him? Who's he murdered? That's taken a bit of a step now, isn't it?
00:07:52
Speaker
But if you only think about it though, you're forgiving them for doing stuff that enslaving elves will not pull when no one goes to village to call. Hang on, we might pay those elves, we don't know. I've never been to the elf party. First of all, how are they going to pay the elves? The elves are going to be making the money. What? So, if someone's got magic, why are they forcing the elves to make the presents?
00:08:15
Speaker
Cos they're also part of his magic, aren't they? Yes, but you can just go snap, snap, snap, snap, snap, snap, snap, snap. It's not like... I don't think he's got endless magic. He's got enough magic to make his slave around the world, and his reindeer magic. And he's also got enough of a presence to imprison elves to force him to do his dirty work. That's magic, innit? For example, if Harry Potter had asked Santa to bring his parents back alive, Santa wouldn't be able to do that, would he? He's not got that kind of magic.
00:08:42
Speaker
I don't know if he's able to do that. I don't know if he's not just lying. Because he's only thinking about it. Does he have enough money to keep himself alive? Because he's been alive for thousands of years. So how does he have enough money to keep himself alive? Unless he has enough power to bring people back from the dead? Because, oh, keep them from dying. Well, I hope he doesn't have that power because I think the world's full enough already.
00:09:04
Speaker
But if you really think about it, what if he's like a Thanos with God mixed together? Oh no, no, that's not good. Thanos is the bad guy. I never think about it. Thanos writes out half the world's popularity to keep the earth alive. Tell me that isn't just doing the exact same thing but making people die natural causes. Instead of just making them disappear.
00:09:27
Speaker
But how would you tell the difference between someone that Santa has made to die from natural causes and someone who's just died from natural causes? Because every death is controlled by God. If God and Him are the exact same person, He controls when people die. Right, OK.
00:09:49
Speaker
Do you write to Santa? Do you write? Do you send your list to Santa? Yes, my mum writes a very long list, a list that's longer than Santa's list, so it's an extended by another two inches. So do you send it to him? We just either send him an email or we just get... we probably send him an email and mum says like... So you don't put all your emails in the email? No, because otherwise Santa would be like, oh my god, I'm not reading that next time.
00:10:17
Speaker
Also, why does Santa need a phone, right? Hey, there's a bunch of FaceTimes for Santa, right? And yet again, in every theory to do with Santa, you have all those little old phones that you go, cling. Well, clearly Santa's moved from the car. Hello? Ben, how did you do FaceTimes? Oh, yeah. How are you doing now?
00:10:39
Speaker
Right, I can see you scrunching up newspaper. What's that for? It's for a reindeer. Ah, that's just going to be its first. Yeah. Are you going to paint it? Yeah. Excellent. Have you been doing other Christmassy things at school? Yeah, we've had a Christmas dinner. Yeah, that looked delicious. And I've dressed my little pony up. Have you? Yeah. In Christmassy things? Yeah.
00:11:11
Speaker
And is it exciting it's gone when it's like this? And are you excited about Christmas? Yeah. Probably opening 24 on my calendar.
00:11:26
Speaker
Does that get a Harry Potter snow glow? It does. Yeah. And then the magic thing? Yeah. I think it's a color. It's like a cube. Right. That's exhausting. And Harry Potter, you like Harry Potter, don't you? Yeah. Are you going to get some Harry Potter presents? Yeah. I'm getting the dolls, the tie hopefully. Unless I have to go to the studios for it. Yeah. And I'm getting
00:11:55
Speaker
Wasting my pony and mountain bike and dobby and a sorting hat and some surprises. That's going to be a big part of the new picture, isn't it? And you woke them all on Christmas Day. Yeah, we always get up at five in the afternoon.
00:12:21
Speaker
And how long does it take you to open? Probably ten minutes. Ten minutes! And then what do you do? Play with them. For the rest of the day. Yeah, and then I go to my mum's and get all the presents for myself and my family and stuff. That's amazing. Thank you. What's your favourite bit of Christmas dinner? Probably the stuffing.
00:12:54
Speaker
fudge cake probably probably just open all the presents and get loads of chocolate have you got birthday sisters? no I'm the only child I want presents for you
00:13:27
Speaker
in the Dusborough town. Did you? Yeah. Did you tell him what you wanted? Yeah. Did you like something? Yeah. He said to leave in a mince pie in her carrot. For a noodle? Yeah. And I hope the elf goes back this year because last year she was sat in the cupboard. Yeah. And do you like Christmas breakfast? Yes! And do you like Christmas? And what do you like about it?
00:13:55
Speaker
It's Jiffle! Jiffle! Jiffle! And it's fun! It is what's most fun. And it's crafty! The best move is crafty. So what did you put on your Christmas list, Freddie? Ooh, high choice.
Innovative Christmas Play Production
00:14:34
Speaker
So in a mainstream setting the Christmas play might be practiced every day throughout
00:14:46
Speaker
the second half of the term, which is normal. We've kind of slowly taught the children, fed it into conversations, and we're not doing a play as in the stage where parents are coming in.
00:15:02
Speaker
we're doing, we're filming it so we haven't gone into a lot of rehearsals and it's going to be very ad hoc. I'm going to give them briefly the storylines to what they can understand and let
00:15:18
Speaker
just go with what they want to say, really. It's interesting, but they know the story. We're doing it a bit different, actually. We're doing the Christmas carol, lots of old Victorian costumes, so that we've got the costumes in the classroom so they can see the costume first, rather than just saying, right, you're wearing this, but we're going to get some of the children to maybe iron the clothes, plus 14 children and all the children to iron the clothes, which will bring in lots of the independent learning.
00:15:48
Speaker
skills as well. So I guess just slowly feeding it into them so they can really prepare. Got a green screen so what we're going to do is put the green screen up, do the films in really short scenes because I think if you do a long play
00:16:10
Speaker
They might lose concentration, the anxiety might build up when they're waiting for the part to come up. I know when I used to do it, I'd get quite anxious thinking, well, that's my line and see my line over and over in my head. And it just fills up the tension and anxiety. So this way, it's just filmed in really short scenes and then we put them all together on a movie creator.
00:16:35
Speaker
Thank you so much for listening. We would like to wish you all a happy Christmas from everyone at the North East Autism Society. Our podcast, This is Autism, will return in a new year, exploring more topics that matter to autistic people and to those who care for them. See you then.