15 Best Dogs Christmas Presents Ideas

Christmas is for family, and in most British homes the dog is family.

They will sit under the table at Christmas dinner, they will be in every photo on the day, and they will have opinions about the wrapping paper. So they get a present too. The only question is what — and the answer is different for a labrador, a dachshund and a staffie.

We have sorted this list the way we would shop for our own dogs: a few things to eat, a few things to wear, a few things to play with, and one or two things that are theirs and nobody else’s. Each one says which dog it is for. If yours already has everything, skip to the section on gifts with their name on.

Which dog is yours?

Before you buy anything, think about what your dog actually does all day.

A retriever wants to fetch and carry. A spaniel or a hound wants to sniff — give them a scent game and they will forget the turkey exists. A staffie or a collie wants to pull, and will destroy anything that cannot take it. A small dog wants something it can carry in its mouth. A puppy wants to play with you more than with a toy, and an old dog wants to be warm and left alone. Buy for the dog you have, not the one in the advert.

Gifts to treat your dog

Treats are the first thing that goes in a dog’s stocking, and the easiest thing to overdo. Pick two or three, make one of them new, and remember they will be sneaking turkey all day anyway.

Festive iced dog biscuits

• Best for: any dog, and any house with more than one
• Website: Fluff & Crumble
• Gift: Iced dog biscuits, Christmas designs
• Price: Around £5 a biscuit, £11–13 for a jar
• Why it works: Looks like a Christmas treat, tastes like one, and a personalised one settles who gets which in a two-dog house.

Hand-baked biscuits iced to look like snowmen, gingerbread men and snow globes. They are the treat that gets photographed before it gets eaten.

The single biscuits can be personalised with your dog’s name, which matters in a house with more than one dog. The jar of peanut butter gingerbread men splits easily between two stockings.

Dog advent calendar

• Best for: the dog who is waiting by the cupboard at 6am
• Website: Lily’s Kitchen at Animed
• Gift: Advent calendar for dogs
• Price: Under £10
• Why it works: Builds a daily ritual through December; the dog learns the box opens every morning and December gets easier for both of you.

One treat a day from the first of December. The point is not the treats, it is the ritual. Buy it in November — they sell out.

Christmas dinner for dogs

• Best for: the dog under the table at Christmas dinner
• Website: Pooch & Mutt
• Gift: Dog Christmas gift box — two Christmas dinners plus festive treats
• Price: Around £10
• Why it works: They get their own plate at the table without any of the stuffing, gravy and onion that sends dogs to the vet on Boxing Day.

Human Christmas dinner is a bad idea for dogs. A tin of dog Christmas dinner means they eat with the family and you do not spend the 26th at the emergency vet. The gift box bundles two turkey dinners with turkey and cranberry treats, which sorts the stocking and the meal in one go.

Gifts to wear

Winter is long and the house is full of visitors. These are the presents that get the dog into the photos.

Christmas dog bandana

• Best for: the dog who will not tolerate a jumper
• Website: Paws Fantasy
• Gift: Custom Christmas dog bandana
• Price: From about £25
• Why it works: The one thing they will wear in every photo on the day, and it goes on the collar they already have — nothing to fit.

Our Christmas bandana is printed with your dog’s name on a festive design, and the tartan red and green bandanas from the same range work just as well for the Boxing Day walk. It slides onto the collar they already wear.

Polyester duck fabric, printed on one side, machine washable, four sizes from small to extra large. Check the size against your dog’s collar before you order — the collar fastening is what keeps it in place. All the designs are in our custom dog bandanas.

Festive collar and lead

• Best for: the dog whose collar has seen better days — which is most of them
• Website: Personalised collars at Hunter, or a tartan festive lead from Natures Menu’s partner stores
• Gift: Tartan or embroidered collar with their name, plus a matching lead
• Price: Around £15–40 for the pair
• Why it works: The one present the dog uses on every walk for the next three years, and the Boxing Day walk is the first outing.

Every guide we read put a new collar or lead near the top, and for good reason: it is the thing that wears out quietest. A tartan one looks right in December and does not look odd in June. If you go personalised, put the name on the collar and the phone number on the tag — not the other way round.

Christmas jumper or pyjamas

• Best for: the dog who likes dressing up, and the short-coated dog who feels the cold
• Website: M&S pet Christmas jumpers
• Gift: Tartan jumper, or Christmas pyjamas in four sizes
• Price: From around £8 for a jumper, £20 for pyjamas
• Why it works: Matches the family’s Christmas jumpers for the photo, and keeps a whippet or a staffie warm on the evening walk.

Not every dog will wear one — if yours squirms out of a coat, get the bandana instead. For the ones that do, the pyjamas come in four sizes and are the softest thing on this list.

Tartan blanket

• Best for: the old dog, and any dog travelling to the in-laws
• Website: Snuggie Paws
• Gift: Fleece dog blanket, tartan check
• Price: Around £12–30 depending on size
• Why it works: Moves with the dog — sofa, car, in-laws — so they have their own spot wherever Christmas takes you.

Lighter than a bed and easier to move around. It goes on the sofa when guests arrive, in the car for the drive, and over the bed when it is cold. Small family-run business, sizes from dachshund to lab, and the tartan check looks right all winter.

A new bed

• Best for: the old dog, the big dog, and any dog still sleeping on a cushion from 2022
• Website: Danish Design beds at Animed
• Gift: Snuggle bed or box bed, memory foam if they are old or heavy
• Price: From around £27 to £70+
• Why it works: The splurge present. Changes every day of their life, not just the 25th, and gives them somewhere to retreat when the house fills up.

Put it in a quiet corner before the guests arrive. A dog with a place to go copes with Christmas far better than one that has to lie in the hallway.

Gifts to play with

New toys on Christmas morning are as much for the humans as the dog. Watching them shred the wrapping is the best part of the day.

KONG Holiday Wubba

• Best for: the staffie, the collie, the lab — any dog that pulls hard and destroys toys
• Website: KONG Holiday range at Animed
• Gift: Christmas Wubba — Santa, penguin or reindeer
• Price: Around £10–15
• Why it works: KONG toughness in a Christmas shape, with tails to tug and a squeak inside; it is the festive toy that survives to New Year.

The tug-and-throw toy for strong dogs. The long tails give you something to hold for tug, and the body is tough enough to be thrown across the garden a hundred times on Boxing Day.

Christmas plush toy

• Best for: the small dog, the puppy, the dog who carries a toy around all day
• Website: Petface Christmas toys at Animed
• Gift: Christmas plush — reindeer, turkey, Christmas pudding, parsnip
• Price: Around £5–12
• Why it works: Cheap, squeaky, and the fun is in the shredding; it is the stocking filler, not the main present.

Soft, squeaky, and gone by New Year. Buy two; the first one will not last the day. For a puppy, this is the whole present.

Treat-dispensing ball

• Best for: the labrador, the dachshund — any dog that thinks with its stomach
• Website: The Clam at Tug-E-Nuff
• Gift: A ball you fill with treats, for fetch and scent games
• Price: Around £15–20
• Why it works: Fetch and a food puzzle in one toy; a food-driven dog will work at it for half an hour while you eat.

Fill it with the Christmas dinner leftovers that are safe — a bit of turkey, no skin — and throw it into the garden. A retriever brings it back; a hound sits and works the treats out. Either way it buys you the length of the Queen’s speech.

Filled Christmas stocking

• Best for: the spaniel and the hound — any dog that lives through its nose
• Website: Christmas stocking fillers at Animed
• Gift: A dog stocking with treats, a small toy and a chew
• Price: Around £10–20 to fill
• Why it works: Ten minutes of sniffing and rooting through a stocking tires a scent dog out more than a walk, and it is the one present they open themselves.

Hang it with the family’s. Put the treats at the bottom and the toy on top, and let them get it out unaided — the rummaging is the gift. Wrap the individual bits in paper if your dog likes to shred.

Gifts with their name on

Everything above is a good present. These are the ones that are actually theirs.

Personalised dog tag

• Best for: every dog, and especially the one who bolts when the front door opens to guests
• Website: Paws Fantasy
• Gift: Custom dog ID tag
• Price: From about £23
• Why it works: If they get out over Christmas, the photo and number on the collar are what brings them home.

Our tag is printed on both sides — your dog’s photo on the front, your contact details on the back. Tag and clip are both metal, so it survives brambles, gates and the corner of the sofa. Six designs, including hearts, paw prints and stars, in our range of custom pet tags.

Personalised dog bowl

• Best for: the dog who gets Christmas dinner
• Website: Paws Fantasy
• Gift: Custom ceramic dog bowl with name
• Price: From about £54
• Why it works: Used every day of the year, dishwasher safe, and it is the gift owners end up buying for themselves.

Christmas dinner deserves its own bowl. Ours are white glazed ceramic, 16oz, personalised with your dog’s name, and dishwasher and microwave safe — made to be used every day rather than kept for best. See the designs in our custom pet bowls.

Christmas tree ornament

• Best for: the family who hangs a new one every year
• Website: Paws Fantasy
• Gift: Custom ceramic Christmas ornament
• Price: From about £17
• Why it works: Comes out every December; after a few years the tree tells the story of the dog’s life.

Every dog should be on the tree — and every cat, which is why the same ornament sits in our cat Christmas presents too. A personalised ceramic ornament hangs next to the family baubles, and if you order one each year the tree turns into a record of every Christmas they have had with you.

Puppies and older dogs

A first Christmas. A puppy does not need much — a soft toy to carry, a chew for the teeth coming through, and you on the floor with them. Keep the wrapping paper away from a puppy that swallows things.

An old dog. Warmth and quiet. The tartan blanket, a soft treat they can manage, and a room away from the noise when the house fills up. They have seen the Christmas drill before; they do not need a toy, they need you to sit with them for an hour.

Sign the card from Santa Paws. Nobody has ever regretted it.