Even the little things can add to the stress of some holiday situations.
Alistair MacMillan, 5, habitually tries to rip off Santa's beard when he visits with the jolly old elf.
He doesn't mean anything by it, it's just part of the visit for him.
His mom, Julie MacMillan, knows that can be disturbing for other children as they wait in line at the mall for their visit with Santa.
MacMillan is grateful to the Pine Centre Mall for introducing a new Christmas program called My Time With Santa where children with special needs can have a few minutes with St. Nick in quiet surroundings.
Alistair was born with a congenital malformation called congenital diaphragmatic hernia where his stomach and intestines were in his left chest, pushing his heart to the right side of his body, MacMillan explained.
"He was supposed to be typical if he survived for the first few days and he did really well and was at B.C. Children's Hospital for six weeks and then at our hospital for three weeks but he just kept having more anomalies," said MacMillan. "He had low muscle tone, he couldn't hold his head up, he started having seizures and we found out he was extremely hard of hearing so a lot of things kept surfacing. So it wasn't until he was about three years old that we started calling him a special needs child."
But the family still has no answers and it looks like there will be no answers forthcoming.
"Alistair is an undiagnosed little fella," said MacMillan, who also has a two-year-old daughter, Francis, with husband Jason. "Alistair doesn't sit or stand without assistance and he doesn't talk either."
The time of day could determine how something is going to affect him, MacMillan explained.
"So to have a specific time of 15 minutes allocated where we can work with him to get those special-moment pictures is pretty key, whereas if we're in the line up he could be losing it and that would affect the other kids," said MacMillan. "Sometimes with special needs kids, it takes more time to get that perfect photo."
Families must pre-register for the limited-space events held Sunday, Nov. 16 from 9 to 10:30 a.m., Tuesday, Nov. 18 from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m., and Sunday, Nov. 23 from 9 to 10:30 a.m.
To register, go to the customer service desk at Pine Centre Mall or call 250-563-3681.
