As banking doom and gloom and eurozone bleakness gives Britain the chills, here come some festive Christmas meerkats to fire up the holiday spirit.
Pointed furry faces blinking at their Christmas gifts, it’s not long before one meerkat takes a closer look, perhaps to compare presents with his friends.
Stockings filled with mealworm, a meerkat staple, were introduced to this hungry mongoose at Blair Drummond Safari Park near Stirling, Scotland.
"It's much warmer in here": one Christmas meerkat gets stuck in
Meerkats can live up to 15 years in captivity, as opposed to a life expectancy of 10 in the wild.
These intelligent animals have a large vocabulary, and are very communicative. Perplexing introductions to their enclosure, like these Christmas gifts, help keep meerkats' brains engaged.
It might be freezing in chilly Scotland, but these hardy meerkats got stuck into their meaty treats, their stripy bodies wriggling all over the yuletide ornaments as they hung on the Christmas tree.
Their enthusiasm for the novelty items gives Christmas scrooges the run around, proving festive spirit's not just a load of baubles.
And thats not the only animal that’s seen some Christmas gifts appear in their enclosure.
Lions, monkeys and even an elephants sang their own noel with Christmas puddings, baubles and boxes.
Rather unusually, Lucifer the lion decided to get involved in the festival with some meat treats, given to him to “spark his natural curiosity".
With this week heralding the first days Britons are meant to start feeling Christmassy, take a look a theses animals getting involved in the Christmas spirit.