Every Day Is Christmas With Bradley Trevor Greive and His Animals Friends

One of my favorite authors is Bradley Trevor Greive, who, since I first read The Blue Day Book more than a decade ago, has delighted me with his pint-sized coffee table books featuring his own witticisms alongside memorable black-and-white photographs of animals ranging from dogs and cats to giraffes and hippos. It was only natural that he should turn his talents to a celebration of Christmas; after all, these little volumes would be a perfect fit for most stockings.

In December, there are two songs on the radio expressing the same basic sentiment. Bryan Adams’ Christmas Time and Bon Jovi’s I Wish Every Day Could Be Like Christmas both have to do with the goodwill that floods the world at Christmastime and the wish that such a spirit could extend to the rest of the year as well. That’s also the idea behind Greive’s Every Day Is Christmas, which bears the cumbersome subtitle Living the Holiday Spirit Throughout the Year Without Damaging Your Health or Driving Everyone Crazy.

Greive, of course, provides examples of both possibilities, amusingly illustrated by a variety of animals in unusual situations. He also shows us the good side of holiday festivities, along with paying tribute to the birth of Christ with an endearing photo of a lamb in a bed of straw and the statement that “The birth of Jesus Christ was, in every meaningful way, the birth of hope.”

But in general, there is lots of silliness to go around. One of my favorite photos shows a hedgehog sniffing a cactus, accompanied by the words “Who can forget the joy of finding the perfect gift for someone you adore?” And there’s the improbable picture of nine puppies dangling inside of socks from pegs on a rack as a cheerful-looking greyhound, presumably their parent, oversees the scene. “Christmas,” Greive says, “is the best day of the year to observe and uphold the true value of family.”

Greive also pokes fun at consumer culture, discussing the zaniness of Christmas shopping in a matter-of-fact manner. “Should you shop early and methodically for gifts or race around at the last minute to save time?” he ponders as a tortoise and hare square off against each other. Anyone who’s ever worked in a mall can probably relate to his complaints about “that accursed album of Christmas songs by the latest tone-deaf sixteen-year-old pop sensation,” accompanied by an elephant seemingly covering his ears with his trunk, and most of us, like the German Shepherd barking at an immobile toy car, have experienced the frustration of getting a fantastic new gadget with no batteries included.

In the midst of all the craziness, Greive encourages us not to get so carried away with the trappings of the season that we lose sight of what’s really important. “These wonder-filled days and sacred hours were meant to be treasured. Always,” he tells us, as an Old English Sheepdog looking to be the next Annie Leibovitz tries to snap the perfect portrait of another sheepdog. Later, he opines, “There are very few things in life worth wishing for beyond the health and happiness of our family and friends. If you have that, you have it all.” On the ensuing pages, he offers a multitude of reasons why we should be grateful and suggests ways to make every day a little more like Christmas ought to be, most of which do not involve big expenditures. As a cat wearing a dog mask and a dog wearing a cat mask cozy up to each other, Greive suggests, “Put yourself in someone else’s shoes for a while and think of what you could do to make them feel loved, appreciated, and joyful.” Wise words indeed.

If you’ve encountered Greive before, you’ll have a pretty good idea of what to expect with this book. Nearly all of his books, no matter what the theme, share the same basic message: Be nice to each other. And they spread this ideal via the work of dozens of talented photographers snapping animals at their best and worst. This book is longer than most, with a length of more than 100 pages. That means it’s also wordier than most, and there’s a greater variety of animals represented, among them camels, chimpanzees, kangaroos, lemurs, hamsters, pelicans, caterpillars, penguins, skunks, frogs, whales, owls, pigs, lions, chipmunks and ducklings. Of course, this book is especially suited to Christmas. But given Greive’s premise, Every Day Is Christmas is perfectly appropriate any day of the year.