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Do you make your holiday plans around your pets? That’s an assertion that the Associated Press recently made in an article: pet owners revolve their late-December events around their pets.
Examples given by the AP include taking holiday-themed photos of pets, using these or other pictures with the animal for seasonal cards, buying pets gifts (the article maintains that just over half of pet owners do this), and even creating special menus for the pet so it can have a holiday meal alongside its human family.
There are two sides to this: one, in which a little holiday cheer is spread to the animal (giving it a few extra treats, including it in holiday card pictures), and the other, using only pet pictures to represent the family and making it a special feast. So is that really how the AP defines the word “revolve”? When I first read the article my mind immediately went to the idea that all holiday plans are made with the interests of the pet first in mind (as one does for one’s children at the holidays, in terms of travel plans and who’s getting the most presents).
Any of my own travel plans, holiday or otherwise, only revolve around my pets insofar as if I’m gone a while I need someone to feed my cats, and that I have a harder time going places where I can’t bring my dog. I’m not crazy about kenneling Chihiro because I coddle her (and not because I think there’s anything wrong with a well-run kennel), so vacation-wise we tend to only go places where we can bring her, unless we can find someone to watch her.
Holiday plans are actually the easiest in terms of this, because we can bring our dog to both of our parents’ houses. My mother is more likely to get my dog an extra Christmas treat than I am, so I’d say that my plans don’t really revolve around my pets.
To be fair, I’m not that into Christmassy stuff anyway. It’s not that I dislike the season; I just am not really drawn to common holiday activities. I barely decorate (once we have children I bet I’ll do more), and I don’t send out a Christmas letter or even a card. If I did either of those latter things I might include my dog in the picture. I’d do that, though, because it was easy; I wouldn’t use a professional photo, but instead just one I’d taken myself.
Even if I don’t do it myself, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with making your pets a focal point of your holiday celebrations. My only concern would be with the special feasts; even if all of the food involved is O.K. for the animal to eat, foods pets don’t have regularly can still cause them problems.
Otherwise, if making your pet a central part of your holiday plans makes you happy, then why not do it? Pets are important members of our families, and that’s what the holidays are all about. Do you have grand holiday plans for your pet?
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*(This image by TravOC is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 License.)
