Basic Trope Description: A character is given a pet as a present.
- Straight: Bob gives his daughter Alice a kitten for Christmas.
- Exaggerated:
- Bob gives his daughter Alice a kitten, a puppy, several guinea pigs, gerbils, bunnies and rats, a python, a tank of colorful fish and a tiger for Christmas.
- Bob gives his daughter Alice a huge, overly decorated box with a fully grown cat inside, who realistically wouldn't be able to breathe in that thing.
- Downplayed:
- Bob gives his daughter Alice a cat plushy for Christmas.
- Bob is actually still in the process of getting a kitten, but decides to announce it to Alice via a collar meant for the kitten.
- Bob starts the process of adopting the kitten early in December; he and Alice bring it home on Christmas Eve.
- Justified: Alice wanted a cat for Christmas, and Bob thinks a cat will teach her responsibility.
- Inverted: Alice is given to a kitten as a Christmas gift.
- Subverted: Alice receives a box with holes, thinking there is a pet inside. But Bob just used a really old box, and there is a normal gift inside.
- Double Subverted: Then a kitten crawls up from under the normal gift.
- Enforced: The author wants to give Alice an Animal Companion, and chooses this way since she is a Kid Hero.
- Averted: Alice is only given inanimate objects for Christmas.
- Zig-Zagged: Some characters get pets as Christmas gifts, others not.
- Parodied:
- Alice is given a box with holes and doesn't recognize that obvious clue. When she opens the box, a kitten jumps out surrounded by fireworks, only to claw her face terribly.
- Alice is gifted a fully grown tiger that pops out of a comically tiny box. It then proceeds to cuddle Alice like a normal cat.
- Invoked: Alice wishes for a pet for Christmas, and Bob decides to fulfill her that wish.
- Exploited: An Evil Sorcerer, who hides in the muggle world in kitten shape, lets himself being given to Alice as her new pet to infiltrate her life and that of her family.
- Defied: Alice tells Bob that she wants a kitten for Christmas. Bob, knowing about Alice's immaturity due to her young age, says no and stays with it, whatever Alice tries.
- Lampshaded: "Holes in the box, there is definitely something cute inside..."
- Discussed: "Alice invited me over. She wants to introduce me to her new kitten." "Alice has a kitten?" "Yesterday was Christmas Day! She has it since yesterday."
- Conversed: "Good that Alice loves cats so much. This cat maybe won't end up in the shelter or dead like so many pets."
- Deconstructed: Alice is only six years old and doesn't know how to care for a cat. She ends up abusing it unwittingly. Also, her parents didn't inform themselves about cats, so the cat ends up underfed and ends up in the animal home or dies.
- Reconstructed: The kitten for Christmas isn't a surprise. Alice's parents try to learn everything about and prepare everything in the best way possible for the kitten, and know that it will be still mainly their cat since Alice is just six.
- Implied: The Christmas decorations are still hanging, Alice introduces her friend Claire to her new kitten, and a box with holes is standing around in the living room.
A box? With holes? What will be inside? It is meowing...it is...a main page!
