Philly pet parents pamper their fur babies during the holidays with overnight hotel stays, custom photo shoots, and $100 or more in gifts

Jessica Schoeffling and Jermaine Rhoden love to spoil Willow during the holidays.

The Manayunk couple get the 3-year-old’s photo taken with Santa for virtual Christmas cards. They visit the Christmas Village and Elmwood Park Zoo, where she can take in the lights. Willow has an Advent calendar, does a toy exchange with friends, and will receive about $50 to $80 in gifts from her parents on Christmas Day.

Willow, by the way, is the couple’s dog, a cattle mix.

“Having a dog makes Christmas more fun,” said Schoeffling, a 25-year-old data analyst. “I’m not ready to have a kid, but it’s fun having something else to spoil.”

Nearly 90% of U.S. pet parents spend more than usual on their fur babies during the holiday season, with 70% buying their pets gifts, according to a recent survey from personal finance company SoFi. This comes as overall pet spending has increased in recent years, fueled in part by a pandemic spike in animal ownership.

For many Philly-area animal lovers, these next few days don’t only represent crunch time for getting gifts for kids, parents, and other beloved humans. They also mark the final stretch of shopping for the furry friends in their lives.

The region’s pet businesses — some of which got started at the height of the pandemic — are adapting to heightened consumer demand for holiday gifts and experiences, especially for their canine companions.

“Dogs are the new kids for a lot of people,” said Matt Caserta, who cofounded the pet photography company Pawtrait Pop-Up with his partner, Mary Sweeney, in 2021. “People love their dogs and they’re part of the everyday family. We love highlighting that.”

The company, which specializes in “school-picture, yearbook-look” photos, got in on the holiday demand last year, doing about 30 private sessions, which were priced at $100. This season, he said, they’ve been slammed with requests to partner with small businesses for festive events and “Santa Paws” shoots. Many pet owners tell Caserta and Sweeney that the “pawtraits” will be gifts for loved ones.

Around the holidays, artist Jie Kuang, owner of Char & Whiskers, said customers often buy a bespoke pet ornament or portrait — which range from $25 to $100 — as gifts for their spouse or partner from the dog or cat.

“They’re almost like a sibling or son or daughter nowadays,” she said. The parents will “always write ‘From Franklin’ or ‘From Gus.’ … It’s really cute. I enjoy being in the middle of it and seeing all the joy.”

At Pet Friendly Dog Bakery in Manayunk, the holidays are the “busiest time of the year by far,” said owner Steph Johnson, with December sales usually double what they are during other months.

This year, the bakery started selling its own Advent calendars, which cost $17 and come with 12 pet-friendly shortbread cookies. Johnson said she was inspired by the store’s past success in selling more generic calendars in which customers had to hide their own treats.

Also popular: $5 ornaments filled with tiny pet treats and themed cookie boxes, with options including a Hanukkah box, a “Pawgwarts” Harry Potter box, and a Buddy the Elf box.

“A lot of people buy them as gifts for their family dogs,” Johnson said. “People come in and buy five or six boxes.”

Throughout the season, the bakery also hosts Santa and the Grinch, which draws in customers who can get their pets’ photos taken with them for $10 to $20. All proceeds go to local pet charities, Johnson said.

In Bucks County, Saint Rocco’s Treats kicks off the holiday season with a free Santa photo session to get customers in the door. They started the tradition last year, after noticing more people getting pet holiday photos, said Kaleb Rush, who cofounded Saint Rocco’s with his brother, Kolby, about three years ago. Their decision has paid off.

During the holidays, more total purchases are made, Kaleb Rush said, and on average people spend more per purchase. For the first time this year, customers can customize a “Happy Howlidays” pet treat box, which go for $75 or $100 depending on the size.

When it comes to holiday experiences, some Philly pet owners splurge on more than just extra treats and $10 photos.

Nikki Scattolini Wilkerson and her husband, Christian, may treat their dogs, Ziggy and Toad, to a small holiday staycation at a dog-friendly Kimpton hotel in Center City. The pups stayed at the Kimpton Hotel Palomar recently, she said, and “really liked it,” especially the welcome “bark”cuterie board.

They’ll get photos taken with Santa, perhaps at Saint Rocco’s, she said, and the photos will be posted on the dogs’ joint Instagram account, which has more than 12,000 followers. The pups also plan to attend the holiday party at Bark Social, the “dog social club” and bar-restaurant for humans in Manayunk.

Come Christmas Day, the 36-year-old nurse from Grays Ferry will stuff their stockings with about $30 worth of treats. They usually get small gifts from grandparents, aunts, and uncles, too. It adds joy to the holidays for both pups and parents.

“Anything that makes them happy makes me happy,” said Wilkerson.

Taylor Godsey, 27, of Springfield, Delaware County, spent about $250 in total on a holiday photo shoot and 60 Christmas cards for her cats Sophia, Sushi, and Khloe “Ko Ko.”

“I really take pride and joy in my cats, and I love the people in my life,” said Godsey, a drug and alcohol prevention specialist. “I think it’s a nice cute way to show them I love them.”

She’s ordering the kitties monogrammed Christmas stockings to fill with treats, sweaters, and other goodies.

“Oh my god, they love Christmas morning,” she said. “They love the boxes. They love the wrapping paper.”

Godsey said she wanted to spend between $50 and $100 on their gifts, she said, but she’s also been eying a One Fast Cat exercise wheel that runs closer to $200.

“I’ll have to see what I spend on all my human gifts first,” she said.

In Fishtown, Angie Bui, 31, said her 3-year-old Aussie doodle, Catfish, brings extra holiday joy to her entire extended family, who love to put Santa hats on him and shower him with gifts. Bui’s father has even been known to wear matching sweaters with Catfish.

As for how much Bui and her partner, Matt Lenhoff, will spend on their gifts for Catfish?

“We try to keep it on the lower end,” she said, adding with a laugh: “But never a budget for him.”