Of course, the holiday season is a fantastic time of year to show those we love just how much we care, whether it be through thoughtful gifts, quality time together, or some other means. Ensuring that the holidays are meaningful and enjoyable for our loved ones is something we all strive to do every single year. With human family members and friends, doing so is simple and straightforward enough. But, how can we make sure our precious fur babies have a wonderful holiday as well? Today, I’ll be giving you some tips on how to leave your beloved pets feeling appreciated and loved this holiday season!
1. Involve Your Pets in Family Traditions!
Depending on what holiday you celebrate, and how you celebrate it, this advice can be fairly broad. What it comes down to is making an effort to include your fur babies in whatever you do for the holidays. If you typically watch holiday movies together, then set out a soft, cozy blanket on the couch or move a pet bed to wherever you’ll be at. This should entice your babies to cuddle with you while you watch your favorite holiday romcom or family movie!
Another simple way to do this is by getting a stocking for each of your pets. My family and I have been doing this with our cats for years now, and the kitties always end Christmas day with a bunch of fun new treats and toys to enjoy. Start off by including a few of each pet’s favorite treats in the stocking, just like how we often give candy to human family members. This could mean a can of wet food, a flavored bone, or a pouch of dry treats. Then, add in a few small toys like catnip mice or chews; anything that your pets like playing with.
With our cats, we typically include a few pipe cleaners and sparkly balls in each stocking. These might seem like boring toys, but our kitties are obsessed with them! They don’t need anything fancy or expensive, they can play with the most mundane of household objects. But, much like humans, each pet is different with their preferences and interests. So, it’s up to you to decide what goodies they would love most!
2. Treat Your Fur Babies to a Holiday Meal!
Once again, this could differ depending on what your pets like, but the gist of it is to make sure they have something special to eat alongside their human companions. Open a can of chicken pate, break out a new bag of dry treats, or if the food is safe for pets, you could even give them a portion of your holiday spread! My family typically cooks a ham, turkey, or chicken breast for our Christmas meal, and we often pass leftovers of it to the cats. Please keep in mind that not all foods are safe to share with fur babies, though! If you’re not sure whether certain food is safe or not, my advice would be to not risk giving it to your pets. Or, at least do thorough research to determine the safety of it.
However you decide to treat your little babies, make sure to feed them at the same time you and your family dine. This way, it’s like your pets are sitting at the dining table alongside you! They get to have their own special feast to celebrate. How fun!
3. Give Your Pets All the Love! They Deserve It.
In my opinion, this is easily the most important point of all. It’s the season of love, kindness, and giving, so ensure your pets receive some of that holiday cheer. Give them all the chin scratches, all the belly rubs, all the pets, and all the cuddles! Absolutely spoil your fur babies, even more so than usual. Because they deserve it.
Our fur babies love us unconditionally, check on us when we’re worried or scared, give us cuddles all the time, and just generally are incredibly sweet and loving. Our pets are there for us on our worst days and in our toughest times. They’re out forever companions and eternal friends, always in our hearts. So, it goes without saying, they one hundred percent deserve that love, affection, and dedication back. Of course, we should show our pets love and care all year-round, but the holiday season is a great time to give them a bit extra!
Well, that does it for my post! I hope these tips help you plan the perfect holiday celebration for your adorable fur babies. While you’re at it, please give them some additional cuddles and pets from me! They absolutely deserve it. 😸💗
This post is part of the Blog Brew, a monthly collaboration between seven other amazing bloggers and myself where we cover various topics each month. Very fitting with the month of December, our current theme is ‘Christmas’. As such, we all have posts full of holiday cheer that are sure to make your Christmas celebrations more merry and joyful this year! Be sure to follow along with the other bloggers in this collab below! They’ve written wonderful posts about this heartwarming holiday. I hope you enjoy them!Â
Day 1- Luce over at perselem
Day 2- Beth over at thoughtsofarealredhead
Day 3- Jessie over at wandererandtraveller
Day 4- Rhiannon over at mrssleejones
Day 5- Thanks so much for reading my post! I really appreciate it! 😊💗
Day 6- Karalee over at talesofbelle
Day 7- Kim over at chimmyville
Day 8- Kirsty over at kirstymarie
Introverted Creativity 
I love this! While we don’t do stockings here, I do make sure to have 1 or 2 presents for my hamsters under our Christmas tree. Generally a fun new toy, but also something yummy. 🙂 Though this year one of them will probably only get one present under the tree as her present this year is a brand-new and much bigger cage (she is very active and needs an even bigger cage). 🙂
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Aww, thank you so much!! I’m really glad you loved the post; that’s awesome to hear! 😄 That’s so cute! It’s great that your hamsters get Christmas gifts, too. I think a toy and a treat is a fantastic combination for fur baby presents! And a new cage, that’s an amazing present! I’m sure she’ll absolutely love it! 💗
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You’re welcome! Yep, I even wrap them and put them under the tree! Before we moved homes we even picked up the hammies when it was time to get their presents as they were in the living room, these days we bring them along when we go upstairs. We gave it to her early and she totally went out of her mind. Sniffling, digging, running, and today she is totally pooped (though still wants hugs if those are offered 😛 ).
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Thanks again! We do that for the cats, too! They each get a stocking full of goodies and one or two wrapped presents to tear into later. That’s so cute and precious! I can just imagine the little hammies being excited for their presents. 😊💗 Haha I’m so glad she loved it! Her being completely pooped is a definite sign of that lol 😄🎶
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Aww, that is adorable, I can just imagine how much fun your cats have! It is superadorable, for some reason they just know it when they get something special/extra. Haha, yeah! It was totally adorable how she was just pooped for a whole day. 😛
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Yeah, the holidays are always a great time of year for them! They get extra spoiled, haha. 😄🎶 They absolutely know when they’re getting special gifts. My kitties will march right up to their wrapped presents and start investigating lol And that really is such a cute story! 💗
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Wonder if your cats have seen Santa?
They seem to see a lot of stranger things!
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Haha True! Maybe they have seen Santa. Only the kitties know for sure! 😸
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These are lovely ideas. My sister has rabbits and they always have a rabbit advent calendar and stocking every year. We also decorate the outside of our fish tank with those Christmas glass adhesive stickers.
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Thank you very much!! I love that! It’s awesome that there are advent calendars for all sorts of pets now; they really make such fantastic gifts. I love the Christmas stickers, too. That’s so, so cute! 😊
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This is such a great post!
When I lived with my parents, we would always have stockings for our dogs. I would also wrap a present for my dog & she would open it herself!
My dad will also put the extra turkey bits in our dogs’ food so they had something extra to eat!
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Aww, thank you very much!! I really appreciate that! 😊💗 Yeah, we’ve been doing stockings with our kitties for several years now. It’s so fun to celebrate with fur babies and include them in holiday celebrations. It’s so cute that your dog would unwrap the present herself. My kitties usually need a bit of help opening their gifts, haha. 😄
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