When Holidays Feel Heavy: Helping Kids Regulate Big Feelings Through Play
By The Healing Playroom
The holidays bring excitement, movement, and change. For some children, all that activity can feel like too much.
New routines, louder rooms, shifting schedules, and extra people can overload a child’s nervous system and make it harder to stay calm.
At The Healing Playroom, we often remind families that joy and stress can exist side by side. Both are part of the season, and both deserve care.
Why Holidays Feel So Big for Kids
Children thrive on predictability. The holiday season often replaces routine with surprises—new foods, unfamiliar spaces, later nights, and different rhythms.
Their bodies react long before their words do. You might notice:
Meltdowns during gatherings.
Clinginess or regression.
Trouble sleeping.
More tears or frustration than usual.
These behaviors signal that a child is searching for safety, not misbehaving.
How Play Therapy Brings Calm
In the playroom, children practice regulating emotions through creative expression. Using toys, art, or storytelling, they learn to notice feelings and release tension in ways that feel safe.
Therapists guide this process with calm, steady presence—a form of co-regulation that helps a child’s body learn new patterns of safety. Over time, that sense of calm travels with them beyond the playroom. When the noise and excitement rise, they have tools to pause, breathe, and reconnect.
Ways to Support Your Child at Home This Holiday Season
Keep rituals. Familiar routines such as bedtime stories or a nightly hug tell the body it is safe.
Plan quiet moments. Offer breaks from crowds or overstimulation.
Lead with connection. Many difficult behaviors are really calls for help.
Play together. Even five minutes of playful attention can restore regulation and trust.
When the holidays feel heavy, small moments of play can lighten the weight.
Children carry those memories of safety long after the decorations are packed away.
Let this season be gentler, more connected, and filled with grace—one play session at a time.
Our therapists can help your family move through the holidays with steadiness and warmth.