Coping With Grief During the Holidays: Gentle Ways to Care for Your Heart

The holidays can be beautiful… and incredibly heavy.
If you’re grieving a pet, this season might amplify the silence, the missing routines, or the empty spot where joy and fur once lived. You’re not doing anything wrong by feeling that way — grief simply loves deeply.

Here are a few gentle reminders and simple ways to care for yourself this month:

1. Lower the bar. Truly.

You don’t have to “be festive.”
You don’t have to say yes to every gathering.
You don’t need to feel happy just because the calendar says so.

Give yourself permission to feel exactly how you feel.

2. Create a moment just for your pet.

Light a candle.
Set out their photo.
Say their name.
This doesn’t have to be elaborate — even one quiet breath of remembrance can bring comfort.

3. Find a supportive space.

Support groups (like ours), counselors, and pet-loss communities can be grounding. Talking to others who get it can make the holidays feel less lonely.

4. Repeat your pet’s favorite tradition.

A walk they loved.
A treat they always begged for.
A cozy blanket on the couch.
Continuing tiny traditions can help their memory feel close.

5. Know that grief is not a setback — it’s love.

If you feel waves of sadness, it means your heart remembers.
And that’s okay.
You’re doing incredibly well in a season that can be demanding, complicated, and bittersweet.

You and your pet shared a love that doesn’t end in December — it stays, always.