Max Recently spoke to the National Autism Society about Christmas with Autism and how it can affect someone with Autism
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Next up, we meet the multi-talented Max Green! Max is an actor, YouTuber and public speaker. You may also recognise him as the star of our 2016 TMI employment film.
Today Max talks to us about his favourite way to spend the holidays, the pressure of buying the 'right gifts' and what Christmas means to him.
Name a fun fact about yourself and Christmas...
Every Year I watch A Wonderful life with my dad. It is tradition, and I also film all my Christmas and put them on my YouTube Channel which the family can't stand!
What is Christmas like at your house?
Fun and exciting.
Do you have to make changes to a ‘traditional’ Christmas?
Yeah the full thing, except from lights outside the house - too much hard work! Traditions - we always have Christmas dinner first, then presents. So we spend the whole morning not opening presents, watching TV and just being together.
How do the challenges you may face at Christmas make you and your family feel?
For me it’s getting gifts. I find it incredibly hard and stressful, to one point I had to tell my parents what I got them a couple of years ago - in case they didn't like it.
It was tickets to a Phil Collins shows and I was just so worried that they wouldn't like it. I wasn't too sure if they would or not and I just didn't want to feel like they had to pretend to like it on Christmas day. So by telling them before I could have got a refund. So I think I brought it in October and less than a week later I told them. I was just constantly worrying about it, it was all I could think about, sounds silly but that’s the way it is.
With other gifts I just hate shopping to be honest, especially when it is busy I feel all panicked and rushed and start to sweat. And, as you can imagine, Christmas is worse because you then have this pressure of getting the right gift for someone.
How do you envision a perfect Christmas?
Snow and all inside warm watching TV and opening presents, all together, seeing family and a good Christmas dinner.
Have you been supported by the National Autistic Society?
Funnily enough, even though I have been involved in the campaigns, I read every article that the National Autistic Society posts and find it really helpful. I find out things that I thought was just me maybe being silly or just me thinking I was stuck in my way and end up finding out it could be because of my autism. It's important I think not to blame ourselves when things go wrong and realise it may be the condition and what National Autistic Society helps you to find ways of coping with that on their website.
There is a song, “the most wonderful time of the year”. What would you say Christmas is to you?
Christmas is the most IMPORTANT time of the year… It brings us all together and in a way that is so special.
You can follow Max on Twitter at @MaxJGreen and subscribe to his YouTube channel where he'll be posting Christmas updates!
Support and Donate to NAS
A donation to the National Autistic Society this Christmas will help transform the lives of more autistic people and their families.