Petmas

For a while I'd wanted to release an app tied to a holiday — something seasonal that would tap into that burst of goodwill and excitement people feel at certain times of year. Christmas felt like the obvious place to start. Combining a Christmas advent calendar with cute pets seemed like a natural fit, and so Petmas was born.

The Concept

Petmas is a Christmas advent calendar app built around dogs and cats. Each day in December, users unlock a new piece of festive pet content. It's simple, lighthearted, and aimed at anyone who loves their pets and gets into the holiday spirit.

People adore their animals, and Christmas is one of those times when everyone's looking for feel-good content. The two just seemed to belong together.

Building and Maintaining It

One of the real challenges with a content-driven app like this is keeping it fresh each year. Users expect new images and content every Christmas, and producing that manually would eat up a lot of time. To keep updates manageable, I started using Artificial Intelligence (AI) to generate scripts that could produce most of the pet images automatically. That shift made the annual update process much more straightforward — less grunt work, more quality control.

I've now updated Petmas for three consecutive years, which says something about the commitment even when the numbers aren't always encouraging.

The Seasonal Problem

Here's the honest reality: Petmas became my most downloaded app. But downloads are almost entirely confined to a six-week window around Christmas. For the other eleven months of the year, it barely registers. And each year, even those seasonal downloads have continued to decline.

That's the fundamental problem with highly seasonal apps. The spike is real, but it's narrow, and there's no sustainable engagement outside that window.

What's Next

I still believe there's real potential in holiday-themed apps — I haven't given up on the concept. But the lesson Petmas taught me is that you need something capable of generating interest year-round, with a natural boost at holiday time rather than being entirely dependent on it.

The next idea in this space needs that dual appeal. Something people want in July as much as December, with a meaningful extra lift when the holiday rolls around.