The holidays are a special time of year for many humans. Whether you celebrate Christmas, Hanukkah, or are like me and prefer Halloween (perhaps due to all the black cats), it can be a special time of year. Other holidays that don’t occur in the later half of the year can be just as meaningful and create an opportunity to make special memories with your cat.
While my focus is on winter holidays such as Christmas, if you have a different preferred holiday, start a tradition with your cats for your favorite holiday instead. Most of these can be modified to fit any occasion.
Take Holiday Photos
While I am not advocating for putting a costume on your cat, that doesn’t mean you can’t get a fun holiday photo. Use some festive holiday props to create a fun background or, if your cat is fine going in their carrier and not stressed out by people, consider taking them to a photo with Santa event. You can also include them in your own photos.
As it can be challenging to get a good photo with your cat, you may want to embrace the silly to get a more unique photo. Get some plastic holiday ornaments and spread them on the floor. Allow your cat to play with them while you take holiday photos. You’ll get some unique shots that incorporate your cat’s playful side!
Over the years, you can take similar photos with your cat around the holidays. You’ll preserve the special memories of your time with them and, either before or after they are no longer around, you can incorporate them into a scrapbook of your time together.
Craft With Your Cat
I love crafting and always try to find fun ways to craft with my cats. Holiday traditions can involve crafting and many of them don’t require any real skill. My favorite craft I’ve done with my cats is making paw print ornaments, but I’ve also had my cats paint.
One fun idea involves making an ornament with your cat’s fur and it’s very easy to do. Brush your cat and collect some of their fur. I love using a glove brush as it’s basically like petting your cat and I even trained my precious Zoloft to sit in a basket on cue using brushing as a non-traditional reinforcer. Once you’ve collected enough fur, you can take their fur and put it in a clear fillable ornament. You have the option of decorating it with ribbon, puff paints, or even adding other decorations to the ornament.
An alternative involves getting a small tube, box, or vial and collecting whiskers from your cat. You may need to do this for a while prior to the holidays so start this one early! Add the whiskers to the vial and tie some ribbon around the neck so it can hang from your tree. You’ve now made a whisker ornament! You can either make one for each year or you can keep adding to the same one over the years. You could even consider adding a single whisker from each year you have with your cat.
Do Something Special On The Holiday
I absolutely despise traveling around Christmas so I usually opt to stay home. I’m fine with that, however, because it has resulted in some wonderful memories of Christmases with my cats. My cats all have special stockings with their names on them that I’ve custom ordered from a seller on Etsy and they get a lot of fun gifts each year.
Try to carve out some time to spend with your cat each holiday and do something special for them. It may be as simple as extra play time or a fun enrichment activity. It could also be something meaningful that connects you to a cat you lost. I split a Churu between Prozac and Poutine last Christmas in honor of Zoloft and plan to continue this each year.
Setting aside a little time to bond with your cats will help not only increase your relationship with them, but it will give you a chance to take a step back from the stress of the holidays. Your cats will enjoy themselves so everybody wins!
Enrich Your Cat’s Environment
Keeping cats out of Christmas trees can be quite a challenge, but it can also present an opportunity for some fun. As long as your cat won’t chew on the tree, you can get them their own decoy tree (or a holiday cat tree). Decorate it with cat safe ornaments or even use cat toys as ornaments. Allow your cat to climb to their heart’s content. Not only will this provide them with a fun activity, but it can also give them something to focus on instead of the real tree.
Don’t feel like creating a decoy tree? Get a cat tower Christmas tree or scratching post instead. Less work and your cat will enjoy the holiday fun. You can also get them a sleigh scratcher (which would make an excellent photo prop). Zoloft loved his similar cardboard hut that I got him for his first Christmas with me.
Finally, consider adding a bird feeder outside. Not only will you help feed some hungry birds, but you’ll also give your cat some entertainment at a time when there may not be as much wildlife outside. Spread some holiday cheer to creatures outside your home, too!
