Are you someone who finds themselves scrolling through meme after meme of animals on the internet doing adorable things during the holidays? Or maybe you’re someone who takes your dog or cat in to have their photo taken with Santa at your local pet store each year and sends the pictures to friends and family as little holiday keepsakes.
Regardless of what your traditions are with your pets during the holidays, if you’re someone who loves to take their pet everywhere, and fully feels their heart break a little each time you have to leave your dog at home to head to another holiday get-together during the month of December, it’s time to start planning some pet-friendly festive shindigs.
The key thing to remember throughout the planning and inviting process for this kind of thing is to include like-minded friends and family who are all about their pets. There’s nothing quite like having a gathering and telling everyone to bring their favorite four-legged friend along with them only to have a couple of people completely not feeling the vibe or making comments about leaving your pets at home.
But once you’ve made the perfect guest list filled with agreeable loved ones, it’s time to get out the calendar and start planning. If you need a little inspiration, here is our list of six pet-friendly and fun ways you can celebrate the holidays this year.
Head out to a pet-friendly Christmas tree lot with your family and pick out your tree with hot chocolate in tow.
If you’re someone who has steered clear of getting a real Christmas tree every year for the sake of your pets but misses the authentic allure of a live tree, perhaps it’s time to pick back up on this holiday tradition. Hot tip — as long as you’re careful about putting just water in your tree basin and secure things extra carefully, you should be good to go with a real tree!
One fun way you can incorporate the beloved dogs in your life into the fun family tradition which immediately makes you think of the Griswolds from Christmas Vacation is grabbing your in-laws and their dog or your best friends and their four-legged friend and heading out to a pet-friendly Christmas tree lot to pick out your special tree.
There are a ton of gorgeous garden centers that are filled with dozens of different holiday trees that have been grown and nurtured for many years. And one of the really fun things about these types of places is that since you’re spending most of your time outside in nature, they often allow pets.
So, why not bring a thermos of hot apple cider for the group, get the dogs in the car, and venture out to a snow-covered Christmas tree lot to start the holiday season with a pine-scented bang.
Plan a snowy holiday meet-up with friends at your local dog park.
Most people who love dogs probably find themselves heading to the dog park now and then so their furry best friend can socialize with other dogs as well as get some exercise. And even though it can be a fun experiment to swap puppy stories with a nice stranger at the park, it can also be a spot for socializing with the ones you love who also have a four-legged best friend.
The dog park can be a great spot to meet up with friends and their pups over the holidays because no one has to play host and you know with 100% certainty that it’s a dog-friendly zone where everyone can play, get a bit rowdy, and fully enjoy themselves.
Before your dog park meet-up, you can send out a text blast that states how everyone, including the dogs, is encouraged to come to the dog park in their favorite ugly holiday sweater. Plus, it might be a fun and festive idea to make a huge jug of hot cocoa for everyone and bring some dog treats along for the ones frolicking in the snow on all fours.
Invite your besties and their kids over for some pet-friendly holiday baking.
If you’ve spent months scouring the internet for the best cookie and sweets recipes for humans, maybe it’s time to switch things up a bit this season and start whipping up some pet-friendly treats for your pups and cats.
A cool idea for a holiday get-together that can easily include both animals and kids is planning a holiday baking night or a weekend afternoon date with your besties and their kids that includes some specialty baked goods that dogs and cats can enjoy.
It doesn’t need to be anything too complicated, and you could even do some of your own Christmas baking at the same time, but this way, you could all get some of those super cute decorative tins and stack them with homemade dog or cat treats and have your presents ready for your best furry friends a little earlier than usual.
Organize a holiday-themed home photo shoot for friends and family and their pets while integrating a charity component.
We’ve all gotten that email from our local pet stores that says to come on by throughout the month of December to have your pet's photo taken with Santa. It’s a really sweet idea, but there’s often a hefty price tag attached and you also might feel obligated to spend extra money during a time when you either need to be saving or thinking of others.
If you love that core idea of taking your pet into a magical holiday-themed set and having their photos taken for a Christmas card, social media, or even just for posterity, there is absolutely no reason why you can’t create a fabulous wintry scene at home for photos with your pets and include some loved ones who might also want to take advantage of this cool photo op.
Since holiday decorating is pretty much on steroids nowadays, you might have some years where you don’t even get out all of your decorations. This is the time when you take a corner of your house and really go big with your Christmas tree by the stairs or poinsettias or fully light up your bushes outside with several strands of sparkly lights to achieve the most aesthetically pleasing look you can get.
And once you’re pleased with how things look, you can shoot a few texts to friends and family and tell them to come over with their pets for a little holiday photo shoot. And if they feel like they need to bring you something to say thank you, you can ask them to bring some pet food for your local animal shelter that you can drop off.
Host a silly Secret Santa gift exchange with your kids and some of their friends and their pets.
Remember when you were in school or participating in an after-school extracurricular that would commemorate the holidays by having the whole group get involved in a Secret Santa gift exchange? Well, that thrilling tradition can easily be carried on with your kids and some of their friends and their pets for a cool twist.
If your kids or tweens have been trying to figure out what to plan with their friends or cousins for a holiday get-together, this makes an inspired choice for pet lovers of all ages. Everyone loves shopping for cute little gag gifts, especially if they’re going to a beloved dog or cat.
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On your end, you can help your kids plan a holiday movie night filled classics like Elf and Home Alone where everyone is fully encouraged to bring their pet along with a Secret Santa present where the limit is something below $15. The only rule of the evening for the surprise gifts is that they have to be silly and suitable for pets.
For an easy virtual option, start an online group and invite your friends to donate to an animal charity in their pet’s name.
If you're looking for a creative way to connect with friends and family far and wide while bringing our beloved pets to the forefront, you might consider making an online group where all of your loved ones can come together for a common goal this holiday season.
All you have to do is choose whatever social media site you're most comfortable with and send an invitation out to every loved one on your friends' list who you know holds a special spot in their heart for their pets or just animals in general.
At that point, you can either come up with a list of pet fostering and animal-related charities yourself or have a discussion together about which ones make the most sense for your group. And everyone can show some holiday cheer and generosity by making a donation in their pet's name.
