christmas

Christmas 2024!

December 25, 2024 by Jenna

Merry Christmas, Everyone!

Another Christmas Day is in the books.

The chimps are currently in their nests, getting ready for a deep sleep after a big day of fun! Both groups had many presents to open, full of new toys (thanks to you!), gingerbread cardboard houses, and a Christmas day feast consisting of vegan celebration roast, mashed sweet potatoes, Hawaiian rolls, green beans, corn, sparking cider, and pomegranates. The chimps were over the moon excited for the celebration.

I think they immediately knew something was up as I wore a Christmas cowboy hat all day and Caregiver Katelyn wore a pink Troll doll wig. I suspect they saw our weirdness and figured there was a special celebration incoming! They were right!

Merry Christmas to you! Happy Holidays! I hope you have had a safe, warm, happy day.

Thank you for helping us provide special days like these for the chimps! We couldn’t do it without you.

Christmas Eve in the Chimp House

December 24, 2024 by Sabrina

We are one night away from Christmas here at the Chimp House and while caregivers are hard at work procuring the food for the festivities and wrapping all the presents for the chimps to receive tomorrow Honey B and Gordo are taking it easy and enjoying a long play session in their giant box.

Caregivers Krissy and Dusty hard at work wrapping presents for the chimps:

Krissy constructing a gingerbread house for tomorrow’s festivities:

Early Christmas!

December 9, 2024 by J.B.

With the success of the Fill the Fridge for the Holidays fund in our Comfort & Joy 2024 online auction, we thought we’d bring Christmas to the sanctuary a little early. Grace and Kelsi ordered some extra special treats along with our usual produce delivery and the staff set about decorating the trees on the Hill and Bray with edible ornaments! As you can see, there are many ways to pluck treats out of a prickly tree—and many ways not to! It’s always fun to watch the chimps work through challenges like this.

Many, many thanks to the Fill the Fridge donors: Shelley W., Jamie R., Sherry P., Jayne R., Melody W., Jackie P., Penelope A., Teresa C., Tricia M., Dusty C., Molly N., Frances B., Rebecca M., and Winifred G.!

Christmas 2023

December 25, 2023 by J.B.

Our thanks, as always, to the dedicated volunteers who give up their own Christmas mornings to provide one for the chimps and to the staff that gladly work for an organization that never takes a holiday.

And Merry Christmas to all of our wonderful supporters! May you sleep soundly tonight atop your own mountain of gifts 🙂

On the Seventh Day of Christmas

December 20, 2022 by Chad de Bree

On the seventh day of Christmas, the chimpanzees received giant slinkies. There are some in the groups who love slinkies to play with. We all know that Burrito and Willy B loved slinkies. We are now finding out some of the newer residents also seem to enjoy them. We have seen Rayne and Dora play with them as well as Gordo, though we currently don’t have any footage of Gordo because of his somewhat elusive nature.

Special thank you to:

Marya B. for donating the slinkies!

On the Sixth Day of Christmas…

December 19, 2022 by Anthony

On the sixth day of Christmas

Donor Linda gave to me

New People magazines!

– Cy Chimpanzee, probably

We send our most heartfelt gratitude and warmest wishes to our supporters who have donated to the chimpanzees through the Comfort & Joy online auction! You can go directly to the event’s web page to see the numerous items that were purchased by our community on behalf of the chimpanzees who call the sanctuary home.

You’ve probably seen some of the earliest gifts unveiled on the blog recently, from Squishmallows On the First Day of Christmas to a Negra-themed blanket On the Fifth. Today’s surprise is another unconventional enrichment item, intended to excite one quirky individual in particular. Without further ado, we extend a special thank you to:

Linda M. for donating the subscription to People magazine (addressed to Cy Chimpanzee)

Indeed, the sanctuary’s biggest bookworm will now have a steady supply of celebrity gossip and pop culture trivia to entertain him when he needs a moment of peace apart from his companions. Today, Enrichment Coordinator Chad delivered the latest edition of People directly to Cy’s “mailbox” (a gap under the caging of the Marmot Mountain playroom). You can check out the included video to see how Cy reacted to the holiday surprise!

Secret Santa

December 13, 2022 by Chad de Bree

Boy howdy! What a busy day! Besides our daily Chimp House duties, we had our bi-weekly staff meeting, are deep in preparing for the resident’s Christmas party, sorting through gifts that arrived from the recent Comfort & Joy auction, and trying to keep up with Burrito!

We want to thank those who have purchased items off our Amazon Wish List! We just wanted to let you know if you have purchased something off the wishlist, or sent something directly to us, please be assured that we have or will receive it. It may just take a little bit for us to process things in order to send out the confirmation it has arrived.

If you would like to still purchase items off our wish list for their Christmas party, there’s still time! But time is starting to run out for it to be delivered on time. If you can, please peruse through our Amazon Wish List. We hope to make this Christmas a special one for them!

Now for some photos from today!

Terry taking his chow biscuits to go!