When I was a child, my friends church did a live nativity and used our beloved old donkey Kernel as the star of the stable. This year our church is doing a live nativity for the two very short outside services on Christmas Eve. To my knowledge, it's not been done before by our congregation and I have been a member since I was born, so for 55 previous Christmas's.
Our St Paul Como Zoo has reindeer as residents. Back by popular demand is the Reindeer Cam. You can spend hours watching them and seeing if any will take any practice flights before the big night.
The San Diego Zoo kids page has a live cam for penguins. I love penguins-and puffins. Explore.com has a polar bear live cam as does the SD zoo. Penguins and polar bears seem to be quintessential to Christmas and the North Pole stories.
I've heard lots of stories about pets and Christmas, mostly involving cats that will not leave the tree alone. A former co worker went so far as setting up an empty tree with cat treats as a way to lure their cat away from the decorated Christmas tree. Our dogs never paid much attention, though our current pup gets out of sorts during the process of moving furniture and setting it up and decorating-then he seems to basically ignore. I don't have personal pet stories so would love to read yours in the comments. I also love seeing pet pictures of the curled up under the tree on the tree skirts and would be happy to share with all my readers if you want to send them to samandcoffee65@gmail.com.
I love little kids and babies at Christmas and since I with no extended family gatherings, l have neither. I'm focusing on animals to give me the cheer and childlike wonder.
We had a kitten who, one year, climbed the tree and spent the season sleeping on a branch about 2/3 up.
ReplyDeleteThat sounds so sweet! (I thought i had commented yesterday.)
DeleteI wasn't able to put up a tree for years because of my cats. When they got older I finally did but I had to use non breakable ornaments just in case.
ReplyDeleteClimbing is in their nature I guess. I’ve never had a cat.
DeleteMy friend, a retired AF major, said he and his wife had little money when they first married, so they popped and strung popcorn and cranberries their first Christmas. In the middle of the night two things happened. A mighty crash led them to discover their cat loved popcorn.
ReplyDeleteOh my! He probably thought “buffet”!
DeleteOur dogs have never bothered with the tree and the cat we had for 13 or so years only liked to lay under it, as soon as I put the tree skirt down, LOL.
ReplyDeleteI’d love a picture of my dog on my cute tree skirt.
DeleteI don't have pets so I have no idea that a pet could do so much damage.
ReplyDeleteOh yes! They give love but are or can be destructive.
DeleteWell let's see. Kelsa is here and just pooped her pants. Grandpa is now giving her a bottle. Also I have three dogs at my feet, one is ours and the other two belong to daughter. I don't know how much more wonder I can stand. But I love the story about the donkey.
ReplyDeleteWell, you’re run off your feet. Our donkey was sweet.
DeleteWe had to remove our tree and all decorations on 26th December a few years ago. We were looking after my daughter's cat and he wouldn't leave things alone, despite ignoring all decor at his own house. He was used to us, and to staying at our house, so I have no idea why he was so fascinated by our stuff!
ReplyDeleteDon’t you wonder what’s in an animals head? They also have selective memories and hearing.
DeleteI've had 3 cats and 2 dogs- none ever paid much much attention to the tree except to drink some of the water in the stand. However, our tradition was to go back to the Midwest every Christmas no matter where we lived- DH would take 2 weeks vacation and the kids had the time off from school. There were several years I would have to take the tree down before we left which was usually as soon as the kids got out of school. One year we had a neighbor ask if she could have our tree DH had thrown on the lawn for the garbage pick-up- of course, she was welcome to it LOL.
ReplyDeletePets drinking the water-I do remember that when we had a real tree.
DeleteThe only issue we even had was our den tree that would only fit in Shelby's "spot". So she would nudge the presents to one side so she couldn't sleep with her head under the tree in her usual place.
ReplyDeleteOh, the sweety. They do not like their spots taken.
DeleteThat’s a clever idea. I would save for fire wood.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was young, we had a dog who hiked his leg and peed on the tree. Lots of smelly gifts.
ReplyDeleteOh no! That would not be good, and I hope he was broken of that bad habit.
DeleteBrave to have a live nativity!
ReplyDelete