How to make your Christmas deaf aware

A family sat around a festive table eating Christmas dinner.

Christmas is a time for connection and celebration. But for people who are deaf or have hearing loss, festive gatherings can sometimes feel isolating – especially when communication becomes difficult in noisy or fast-paced environments.

Whether you’re hosting a family dinner, attending a work party, or planning a school celebration, there are simple ways to make your Christmas more inclusive. Read on for tips on how to make your Christmas deaf aware – and why it matters.

What does it mean to have a deaf aware Christmas?

Being deaf aware means thinking about how people who are deaf or have hearing loss experience festive events and making adjustments to help everyone feel included.

This could mean turning down background music, making sure faces are well-lit for lipreading, or simply taking turns to speak at the dinner table.

Why is deaf awareness important at Christmas?

Christmas gatherings are often lively – full of overlapping conversations, clinking cutlery and festive noise. For someone who is deaf or has hearing loss, this can make it hard to follow what’s being said, and lead to them feeling left out.

But it doesn’t have to be that way.

Our Christmas Dinner Game has been created to make sure everyone has fun together while also being deaf aware. You’ll even have the chance to learn a bit of British Sign Language (BSL).

What is the Christmas Dinner Game and how do I play it?

Our Christmas Dinner Game is designed to get people talking about deaf awareness in a fun and festive way, through card games, conversation prompts, fun BSL challenges and tabletop games.

You can play it around the dinner table with family, at your office Christmas lunch, or in schools and youth groups. The game includes five festive favourites, each with a deaf aware twist, including:

Do You See What I See
Read My Lips, Sign It
Act Out
The Reindeer Game

It’s family friendly and a great way to spark conversations about deaf awareness while enjoying some seasonal fun and learning something new together.

Get your Christmas Dinner Game

How can I make my Christmas more inclusive for people who are deaf or have hearing loss?

Here are a few simple tips to help make your festive celebrations more deaf aware:

Ask. Everyone is different, so ask the person who is deaf or has hearing loss what you can do to make communication easier.  They may like you to face them when you’re talking, or to use speech-to-text software on their mobile or tablet to help them take part in conversations.
Take turns to speak. Deaf people and people with hearing loss may find it difficult to follow when multiple people are speaking at once, especially if they rely on lipreading or sign language interpreters.
Make lipreading easier. Use good lighting, face the person when speaking, and don’t cover your mouth.
Reduce background noise. If you’re watching TV or listening to festive music, lower the volume. This will make it easier for people to hear you, and for people who lipread to follow what you are saying.
Use gestures or visual cues. Facial expressions, hand gestures, and body language can help deaf people and people with hearing loss follow the conversation.
Don’t shout or exaggerate your speech. Shouting can be uncomfortable for hearing aid users, and speaking too slowly or exaggerating speech can distort lip shapes and patterns, making it harder for lip-readers to understand speech.
Repeat when asked. If someone asks you to repeat something, don’t brush it off with “it doesn’t matter.” It does – and saying otherwise can make people feel excluded.