Christmas Week With the Dog in Chester County

Christmas week with the dog in Chester County is mostly short drives, a few last errands and one long dinner, and we plan it the way we plan any other week with Ella in the Camaro. Nothing about it is fancy. We just add a few stops and take the back roads home.

This is how our week goes, day by day, and what rides in the console while we do it. Use whatever fits your own week.

How we plan Christmas week with the dog in Chester County

The rule is the same one we use all year. Park, let Ella stretch her legs, hand her a treat, get back in. A short stop every hour or so keeps a long week of errands from turning into a chore for her.

The week fills up fast with everything that is not the dog, so we decide a few things early. Which day is the light drive, which morning is the walk, and which day we do nothing at all. The treat pouch gets packed once, on the first day, and stays in the car until the week is over.

The last errands, with the dog in the car

The days before Christmas are mostly parking lots and back roads between them. Ella rides shotgun for all of it. She does not come inside the stores, and the stops are short enough that she waits in the car with the treat pouch within reach.

The console holds the treat pouch, and the pouch holds freeze-dried cheddar cheese bites. They come in one 8 ounce bag, they are crunchy and not greasy, and they need no refrigeration, so they travel clean in a pouch that gets tossed onto the floor of a car. They contain dairy, which means they are not for a dog with a dairy sensitivity. Check that before you pack them, not at the stop.

A water bottle and a bowl stay in the trunk, same as every other weekend. Errand days run longer than they look on paper, and a dog riding all afternoon gets thirsty before anyone remembers to offer a drink.

Christmas Eve, a night drive on the back roads

After dinner on Christmas Eve we take the Camaro out on the back roads past the horse farms to look at lights. We do not pick a town or a street ahead of time. We just drive until we are tired of driving, then turn around and come home the long way.

Ella sits up in the passenger seat for the first stretch and puts her head down for the rest. Most of the houses we pass are dark, with a porch light or a single window lit, and that is the part I like best. There is nothing to rush to, and nobody has to be anywhere.

On the night drives she wears the circle-logo bandana. It comes in white or black, with our 3-inch circle logo on the front and a classic tie-on fit, and we go with the black one for night drives. It ties on in a few seconds and it washes with everything else afterward.

Christmas morning, the walk before the kitchen gets busy

Christmas morning starts with a walk. We get out early, before the kitchen gets busy and before anyone is awake enough to ask what is for breakfast. A loop on one of the gravel roads near home is plenty.

The treat for this one is freeze-dried beef heart. The pieces are medium sized and firm, they snap into smaller pieces that are easy to hand over one at a time, and the flavor is milder than liver. It comes in 1.5, 3 and 6 ounce bags, and it is a single ingredient, with nothing added. A few pieces on the walk, and then the kitchen is hers to wait out, not ours.

Once the house is full the treat pouch goes back in the console, out of reach. Everyone wants to slip the dog something from the table, and that is the day a bag of treats on the counter turns into half a bag gone.

The drive to the second dinner

Most of our families do Christmas twice, so there is a second dinner somewhere down the road. Ella comes along when the host says yes, and she rides in the back seat with her own bowl in the trunk. We ask first, every time.

The question we get most that day is what a dog can have off the plate. We wrote that up in our guide to a dog at Christmas dinner, and the short version is that a small plain piece is fine and anything seasoned stays on your plate. If your dog is on a special diet, ask your veterinarian before the holiday, not during it.

At the other house we keep the pouch in the console and bring the bowl in only when the dinner runs long. Ella sleeps most of the ride home.

The quiet days after Christmas

The week after Christmas is the best of the whole stretch. The errands are done and the gifts are put away. Most days we take the same loop we took around Thanksgiving, out past the horse farms and back along the gravel, with one stop in the middle.

If you want the longer version of that loop, our Thanksgiving weekend with the dog page covers the same roads. And when you want to go farther than an hour out, we put the rest of our driving habits in winter road trips with a dog.

These days are slow on purpose. We do not plan much, and Ella does not ask us to.

New Year's Eve at home

New Year's Eve is an early night at home. Ella has her dinner, we have ours, and she is asleep well before midnight. We do not drive anywhere. The Camaro stays parked and the console pouch gets emptied, wiped out and refilled for January.

That is the whole week. It is not a big production, and that is why it works with a dog in the car.

From the shop

If you are putting a treat or two in a stocking, we keep a Christmas dog treats collection in the shop. Our everyday freeze-dried treats are what we pack ourselves, and the cheddar and heart above are the two we reach for most this week.

Questions

How long does Ella ride before she needs a break?

About an hour is where she starts asking for a stop. We plan the errands and the night drive around that, which is why the week turns into a lot of small stops instead of one long drive.

What goes in the console pouch during Christmas week?

Cheddar bites on most days, because they hold their shape in a pouch that gets tossed around. On Christmas morning we swap in beef heart for the walk, since it snaps into small pieces.

Does Ella come to the second dinner?

When the host says yes, she does. We ask ahead of time, bring her own bowl and leave the treat pouch in the console so nobody has to find it in the middle of the meal.

Do you really drive around at night to look at lights?

We do, on Christmas Eve only. We pick no town and no street, we drive the back roads until we are done, and Ella rides in the passenger seat the whole way.

Which bandana does Ella wear on the night drive?

The black circle-logo one. We go with black for night drives and white for daylight, so we match it to the hour.

What do you do on New Year's Eve?

Nothing, on purpose. An early night at home, dinner for everyone and the Camaro stays parked.

Read next: New Year's Eve with a dog.