Paddy & Christine McGuinness Talk Christmas Modifications They Made For Their Autistic Kids

Paddy McGuinness, English game show personality and his wife Christine, recently published photos of their giant Christmas tree on Instagram.

The couple has revealed in interviews and through social media that they have not had a Christmas tree in their home in nearly five years, the Daily Mail reports. The couple has explained that the forgoing of a traditional in-home tree was to maintain comfort and normalcy for their three children who do not deal well with environmental changes.

Paddy and Christina have three children at home including 5-year-old twins Leo and Penelope, who have been diagnosed with autism, and their 2-year-old daughter, Felicity, whom they say is also showing signs of autism but has yet to be diagnosed.

The couple shared snaps to Instagram this past week of them hauling and setting up the gigantic tree in their garden. They decided to put the tree outdoors as it interferes less with the children’s environmental triggers and keeps them more at ease. In his recent Instagram post, the TV personality shared a picture of his fully-lit outdoor tree.

“Merry Christmas everyone! Trees up…in the garden, not the house. The little uns are more relaxed with it outside and after a 5 year wait I finally get to go big time with the lights!!!! So happy…until I get the leccy bill.”

Christine also posted a video of herself in a sparkling cerulean blue mini-dress showing off the tree. Her post told her audience that she might consider an indoor tree for a few days if the children react well to this addition first.

In a sit-down with the Daily Mirror, the 30-year-old Housewives of Cheshire star talked about other modifications they have made for their children during the holiday season. Including the exclusion of a traditional holiday meal, Christine says that the colors and textures of traditional holiday food overwhelm the children in a negative way, so they stick with more comforting options.

“The children certainly won’t have a roast dinner, it will be chicken nuggets and fries. They don’t like colors – or the gravy, because it’s wet. Paddy and I will try to have a Christmas meal but it will probably be cold because it’s just as and when we can. We might not even eat together,” Christine explained during the interview.

Christine has also revealed that they do not wrap the children’s presents for sensory and panic-related reasons and they have not introduced them to the concept of Santa as the idea of a strange man coming into their home through their chimney will likely frighten them unnecessarily.

She went on to reveal to reporters that her twins were diagnosed just over a year ago and the first Christmas after was very hard for them as a family.

“They were extremely anxious and unsettled. The Christmas lights, trees, decorations and music…it was all too much. It was very over stimulating and with so much change everywhere it was quite frightening for our children who were pretty much non-verbal, they had no understanding of what was going on. They both just walked passed their presents on Christmas Day. I was devastated that they didn’t get up and run down the stairs really excited ‘like other kids.’ I knew nothing about autism then.”

The mother of three has since empowered herself and her children by learning everything she can about their condition and what she can do to make life better for them. She says that despite the hurdles, she felt confident that this Christmas would be much better than last year.

“I’m feeling confident we will have a happy Christmas this year…With a lot less decorations, they wouldn’t care if they got 1 present or 10 and that is a quality you can’t buy,” she added toward the end of the interview.