Pet Parents Share Chaotic Photos of Their Pets Meeting Santa in Viral Trend

For years, pet stores and other pet-friendly companies have invited customers and their four legged friends to shop in the holiday spirit by offering the opportunity for pets to take photos with Santa. 

This year, TikTok users across the country shared the candid comedic moments they caught on camera while trying to get holiday photos of their pets.

Hashtags including #PetSmartSanta have collectively garnered more than 17 million views and offered some of the imperfect realities of pet Christmas photos.

"PetSmart, you have some explaining to do 🫠," shared one user, along with her dog's photo with a very slim Santa. The post has over 1.5 million views and 200k likes.

In another viral post with nearly 2 million likes, Amanda Perez shared a video of her dog refusing to stand anywhere in the vicinity of Santa, also noting the worker's gray running shoes.

Another pet parent appropriately used a trending audio on the app, in which the famous Home Alone theme song is played on what sounds like a kazoo in an irritating rendition of the classic that gets progressively worse.

He then revealed the photo of his two dachshunds sitting on a bench with a female Santa wearing a suit that was entirely too big, regular sneakers, a beard that started below her lips and a blasé facial expression. 

“They didn’t charge,” Alford responded to a user who commented on the post asking if he spent money on the photos. “But we drove half an hour to get there….. we just busted out laughing when we saw Santa.”

Dog mom Brittany posted a comparison video of what she had expected the photos to look like based on the pictures used to advertise the photos with Santa versus the photos taken of her dogs at the store. 

“Santa Paws tried his best, maybe just no jeans next time,” she captioned the post.

But, fortunately, there are some picture perfect shots as well.

For example, there's golden retriever Teddy, whose owners went all out for his Christmas photos with Santa. He cooperated enough to pose with a bicycle, a piano, some Christmas cookies, and even peeked inside Santa's bag of presents.

As well as this heartwarming photoshoot posted by an account called Katie’s Kritters, which included endearing shots of Marty the iguana with a very happy, quality Santa, a festive backdrop and props.