For many parents, the holidays are always stressful. The heightened expectations, financial stress and packed schedules that most parents experience around the holidays can make this time of year as difficult as it is wonderful. Now consider the impact this additional stress is likely having on your adopted child, who is probably experiencing loss and grief, reliving vivid memories or asking hard-to-answer questions. The holidays with an adopted child can be full of hurdles. As a parent of an adopted child, you must learn to help your child and help yourself through this very stressful time.

Key Takeaways:

• Some couples choose to incorporate each family’s traditions into their holiday celebrations while others blaze their own trail and create new traditions.
• There is so much emotion wrapped up in the holidays, especially your first holiday season that you have spent a long time dreaming about. In my line of work, I often see adoptive parents struggling to make the best decisions for their family during this time of year.
• A good way to keep excess guilt out of your decision-making when making plans with your child’s birth family (or anyone else, for that matter) is to ask yourself, “How would I respond if I were making plans with my cousin or brother-in-law or other extended family member?”

“When you are an adoptive parent, you can also incorporate traditions and foods from your child’s birth family in order to keep a piece of their history in your celebrations.”

http://www.sheknows.com/parenting/articles/1130193/adoptive-parent-holidays