Instant Festive Cheer: From Dressed-Up Dogs To Good Deeds That Make You Feel Fuzzy

Christmas spirit is just a click away

 Christmas is all about giving: gifts of kindness and hilarity.

*Disclaimer: your heart is about to swell with love and laughter*

A festive foursie

Fact: Christmas loungewear isn't just for humans. Ascot Racecourse has created a Christmas foursie (just like a onesie) for a Shetland pony called Daffy. The tailor-made garment makes him look ridiculously cute and it helps him stay warm. Everyone is winning.

Jackie Rowberry, Daffy's owner, said: 'In winter I always worry about Daffy getting chilly as he likes to spend so much time out of his stable.

'I love the fact that Ascot has created a special foursie for Daffy so that he can get into the Christmas spirit. He’s loved all the attention and is quite the envy among his stable buddies!'

Watch the making of the foursie here

Christmas Word Games

Board games and wintery evenings go together like gin and tonic. This Christmas ad from Scrabble will fill you with warmth and wonder. Antigrams are just so cool. Happy holidays.

320 sufers dressed in Santa outfits descended on Sydney's Bondi Beach on Tuesday. It might be the height of summer right now but that doesn't stop Australians from dressing up like their favourite snowscape-dwelling old man. The team at Guinness World Records has confirmed this merry band has broken the record for the largest ever surf lesson. The community held the event in partnership with local charity OneWave, in a bid to raise awareness about mental health issues. Goats sing carols

A whole Christmas album sung by goats? You bet such thing exists. It's all thanks to charity ActionAid who have put together the collection of songs, entitled All I Want For Christmas Is Goat

Will Ferrell accosting New Yorkers

OK, so forget kindness momentarily, sometimes Christmas is just about being cheerful. And The King Of Christmas, Will Ferrell, knows how to make us laugh. During this sketch he is dressed in a Christmas onesie, along with his pal Bill and the pair roam the streets of New York quizzing people about Christmas movies in shouty voices. Watch below. Ho ho ho.

Festive knits for abandoned dogs

Jan Brown a masterful knitter from Sunderland has spent 4000 hours knitting 300 Christmas jumpers for chilly homeless greyhounds. This extra layer stops the whip-thin, fine-furred hounds from shivering during the winter months, plus it makes them look like so adorable we burst. On average, one jumper takes 20 hours to complete and once finished, Brown ships them to animal shelters across the UK. All profits Brown makes from selling her knitted creations (via her site knittedwithlove.co.uk) go towards buying wool to make more coats and covering postage costs. 

The advent box idea

Louise Scott, a personal trainer from South Shields announced on Facebook that this year, instead of a traditional advent calendar, she will be creating an ‘advent box’. She shared a snap of a cardboard box containing a tin of tomato soup along with the caption: 'Everyday, I will place something in this box. Food, toiletries etc. Then on Christmas Eve I will take it to a shelter or find a homeless person to give it to’. Her post went viral and hundreds of thousands of people have decided to do the same. 

Christmas cards to a lonely schoolboy

Aron Anderson, a Scottish 10-year-old, dubbed ‘Britain’s loneliest schoolboy’ by The Daily Mail is the only pupil at his school on the island of Out Skerries. There are no longer any other children of primary school age living on the island (the total population is just 70). Anderson has no one human to play with during break (just dogs and sheep). Thousands of people have already promised to send him a Christmas card in an effort to make him feel less alone. You can too:

Mr. Aron Anderson

c/o Skerries School

Out Skerries

Shetland

ZE2 9AR 

A Grinch tried to steal Christmas from an elderly widow, so her neighbours stepped in

Since the death of her husband five years ago, California-resident Natalie Conkel had been less inclined to decorate her home during the festive season (it was tricky for her to do alone). However, this year she bought a special light box that projects a festive display on to her home. But soon after she installed it the gadget was pinched. When her community heard of the robbery they rallied around to help, donating new decorations and helping her deck out her house like a Santa’s grotto. 

Image source: Caters via New York Magazine