Grief Holiday Planner for Bereaved Parents and Kids, Child Loss Christmas Sympathy Gift, Angel Day & Birthday Pages, Printable Workbook

Our First Holidays Without You

From Thanksgiving to the new year: a family holidays & hard dates pack, for families after the loss of a child. 26 pages.

Part of the I Am Grieving, Now What? series.

The first holidays after losing a child can feel impossible. The lights, the songs, the empty chair, the photo everyone wants to take. And the hard days don't stop at the holidays: there's their birthday, the day you lost them, Mother's Day and Father's Day, the first day of school. These gentle pages help your family decide together what to keep, what to change and what to skip this year, make room for your child at the table, and take care of each other through every hard date on the calendar. Kids and grandparents included.

For the whole season, Thanksgiving through New Year's, and for every family: use it for Christmas, Hanukkah, Diwali, Eid, or any day your family gathers. If you don't celebrate holidays, the hard-dates pages are made for you too.

A gentle introduction on every worksheet. Each page opens with a short, loving explanation of why it matters, grounded in respected grief research and children's grief guidance, and one calming breath. Pages kids can join are marked with a heart.

WHAT'S INSIDE (26 PAGES)

Start Here

• A personal note from me (including Harper's early Thanksgiving), then a note for you and how to use these pages

Planning Together

• Keep, change, or skip: sort your traditions for this year
• Our family vote: a voting page the kids can join ♥

Keeping Them Close

• The empty chair: ways to include them at the holidays
• Our memory candle: color it, plus words to say when you light it ♥
• An ornament for you: two cut-out ornaments to color ♥
• A letter for their stocking or memory box ♥
• Pass the memory: a cut-out card game for the table ♥

Getting Through Gatherings

• What to say: ready-made words for questions, hurtful comments and saying no, plus a note to send family ahead of time
• My holiday feelings: a page just for kids ♥
• My holidays, my grief: one page for each partner
• A grandparent's holidays

The Holiday Season

• A place at the table: Thanksgiving cards to write what you're thankful for about them ♥
• A new year without you: carrying them into the new year ♥

The Hard Dates

• Their birthday
• The day we lost them (angel day or anniversary)
• Mother's Day & Father's Day
• Back to school, and "their season"
• Our year of hard dates: a 12-month planning calendar

Getting Through, and After

• On the day itself: a simple care plan
• After the day: what helped, and notes for next year

At the end

• Find your circle: how to join The Ugly Cry Club, a grief group for those who have loved and lost
• A thank-you page with a 25% off code, a link to my shop and an invitation to ask for custom gifts

WHAT YOU'LL RECEIVE

5 PDF files, 26 pages each:

• Fillable – US Letter (type right on the pages on a computer or tablet)
• Full color – US Letter (8.5 x 11 in)
• Full color – A4
• Printer-friendly (white background, saves ink, great for coloring) – US Letter
• Printer-friendly – A4

WHO IT'S FOR

• Moms, dads, stepparents and bonus parents facing the holidays and hard dates after the loss of a child, the first year or any year after
• Families with children and teens at home, and grandparents who want to help
• A thoughtful holiday sympathy gift for a family who has lost a child this year
• Grief groups, chaplains, hospice teams and counselors supporting bereaved families during the holidays

A GENTLE GIFT

If you love a family who is facing their first holidays without their child, this is something you can give that asks nothing of them. Send the download, or print the ornament and candle pages and tuck them into a card.

HOW IT WORKS

• This is a digital download. Nothing will be shipped to you.
• After checkout, your download page opens right away, and the download link is in your Payhip receipt email.
• Print at home or at a local print shop, or fill in the pages on a tablet with a PDF app like GoodNotes or Notability.
• Fillable fields work best in Adobe Acrobat Reader.
• Print the ornament and table-game pages on cardstock if you can.
• Print a single page or the whole pack, as many times as you need for your own family's personal use, one copy for each person.

A NOTE FROM ME

Hi, I'm Niki. I made these pages after losing my daughter, Harper. I'm not a therapist. I'm a mom who has walked this road, read everything I could find, and leads The Ugly Cry Club, a grief group for those who have loved and lost. I'm also a certified grief educator. Every page is written the way I wish someone had spoken to me: gently, honestly, and without a timeline.

Real tears. Real love.

Harper's Heart Press

PLEASE NOTE

• This pack is a gentle companion. It is not therapy and is not a substitute for care from a licensed professional. If you or someone in your family is in crisis or thinking about ending their life, please call or text 988 (U.S.) or your local emergency number.
• For personal use only. Please don't share, resell, or redistribute the files. Grief group leaders, counselors and organizations, please message me about group licensing.
• Because this is a digital file, returns and exchanges aren't accepted. If anything is wrong with your download, message me and I'll make it right.
• Colors may look slightly different depending on your screen and printer.

MORE FROM THE I AM GRIEVING, NOW WHAT? SERIES

• Mothers Edition, Fathers Edition and Grandparents Edition: for each grown-up in the family
• Little Hearts (ages 3–6), Heart to Heart (ages 7–12) and Unsaid (ages 13–17): for the brothers and sisters
• The First 30 Days: gentle pages for the earliest days