Getting a Puppy for Christmas, Done Right
Is it a bad idea to get a puppy for Christmas? The research says gift puppies stay with their families at the same rate as any other. What matters is timing, the first week, and not getting scammed by a holiday listing.
Every December someone tells you that getting a puppy for Christmas is a terrible idea. The evidence doesn't back that up. An ASPCA study published in 2013 found that 86% of pets received as gifts were still with the family for the rest of their lives, the same rate as pets acquired any other way. Most people who got a pet as a gift said it made no difference to their bond, or made it stronger.
So the question isn't whether a Christmas puppy can work. It's how to do it so the puppy and the family both have a good first month. Here's how we plan it with families every year.
Don't bring the puppy home on the 25th
Christmas Day is the loudest, busiest day of the year in most homes. Visitors, wrapping paper, rich food on low tables, doors opening and closing. It's a hard first day for an eight-week-old animal that has just left its mother.
Most families do better with one of two plans:
- Bring the puppy home a few days before, so the house has a routine by the 25th and the puppy already knows where its crate is.
- Give the puppy as a promise. Wrap a collar, a lead, a photo of the puppy and a printed welcome card, and bring the puppy home a few days after Christmas, when the house is quiet again. Children love the countdown, and it's the plan we suggest most often.
The age rule doesn't bend for holidays
A puppy should be at least 8 weeks old before it leaves its mother, and many US states make 8 weeks the legal minimum for a sale. If a puppy won't reach go-home age until January, a reservation under the tree is the honest answer. Be suspicious of any seller who offers to "release early" to hit the 25th.
Our Christmas puppies page shows which litters can go home in December.
Holiday scams spike, so slow down
Puppy scams peak in November and December, because buyers are in a hurry and gifts have a deadline. The pattern is almost always the same: a lovely photo, a price that's a little too good, a deposit by gift card or a payment app, then a sudden "shipping crate" or "insurance" fee before delivery.
Four checks protect you from nearly all of it:
- See the puppy and its mother on a live video call.
- Pay only to details you've confirmed by phone with the breeder.
- Never pay by gift card, cryptocurrency or a money-transfer app to someone you haven't verified.
- Reverse-image-search the photos.
Our full puppy scam guide walks through each one.
Ready the house before the puppy arrives
The week before Christmas is a bad time to discover you don't own a crate. Set up these in advance:
- a crate in the room where you sleep, with a blanket that smells of the litter (ask your breeder for one);
- a small-breed puppy food, ideally the one the puppy is already eating;
- a puppy gate to keep it out of the kitchen while the oven is busy;
- your vet's first appointment booked for the first week.
Our new puppy checklist has the full list, and the first week home post covers the days after.
Make a holiday-proof house
The things that hurt puppies over the holidays are predictable: chocolate, raisins and grapes, xylitol in sugar-free sweets, cooked bones from the turkey, tinsel and ribbon, and tree lights within chewing reach. Keep plates off coffee tables, keep the tree base fenced, and tell visiting children the puppy is asleep in its crate and not to be woken. Puppies sleep 18–20 hours a day, and a tired, overstimulated puppy is the one that nips.
Choosing a breed for a family gift
If the puppy is for children, a sturdy size matters more than colour. A Mini Cavapoo or a Miniature Poodle copes with family life better than a toy size does. Our side-by-side breed comparison covers the rest.
Source: Weiss, Dolan, Garrison, Hong & Slater, "Should Dogs and Cats be Given as Gifts?", Animals (2013), ASPCA.