Looking for something to celebrate now that the holidays are over and the winter doldrums have set in? Well here it is. January 21 is National Squirrel Appreciation Day! The National Wildlife Federation has some tips to help you and your children celebrate this special day:

• Get in the Mood – See NFW’s list below of the many ways in which squirrels are special. Open a book and learn more. Adults might enjoy Squirrels at My Window by Grace Marmor Spruch. Kids will get a kick out of Those Darn Squirrels! By Adam Rubin, or The Adventures of Chatterer the Red Squirrel by Thornton W. Burgess.

• Feed Them, and They Will Come – Watching squirrels work for food is a lot of fun. Hang an ear of dried field corn from a tree branch or smear peanut butter on a pinecone and hang that instead. However, if you have birdfeeders you might want to be careful about getting squirrels used to being fed…well, maybe just for this one special day.

• Shoot ‘Em – Photos or videos, of course. Squirrels are amazing athletes and, admit it, they’re pretty cute. Maybe your video will go viral.

Eleven Nutty Squirrel Facts 

1. Squirrels can sniff out food buried beneath a foot of snow.

2. A squirrel’s front teeth never stop growing.

3. Squirrels may lose 25% of their buried food to animal thieves.

4. Squirrels may pretend to bury a nut to throw off potential thieves.

5. Squirrels routinely zig-zag to escape predators. Unfortunately this strategy doesn’t work as well with cars.

6. A newborn squirrel is only an inch long.

7. The Indian giant squirrel of Southeast Asia can grow up to 3 feet in length.

8. Humans introduced squirrels to most of our major city parks.

9. Squirrels are acrobatic, intelligent, and adaptable.

10. Squirrels bulk up in fall to stay warm during the winter.

11. Squirrels don’t dig up all of their buried nuts, which results in more trees. We owe them for that if nothing else.

So go ahead and appreciate a squirrel or two. We can go back to cursing them next week!