Too Good To Be True – Alpacas Dressed Up For Xmas in NJ

A few years ago, unicorns were all the rage.  They were everywhere...on shirts, mugs, pillows, and all over social media.  Then in 2017, unicorns were replaced by llamas and alpacas and the best part of this new trend is that llamas and alpacas are real...and several of them live on farms right here in New Jersey.

One of those farms is the Jersey Shore Alpaca Farm in Cape May.  According to Jersey Shore Alpaca's website, the farm started with 2 alpacas back in 2006 and the herd has now grown to 20 --- 10 females and 10 males.

LiveScience.com says that alpacas are domesticated animals that are raised mainly for their soft wool.  They are related to llamas (both are descended from camelids), but llamas are usually larger than alpacas and herded as pack animals.

Throughout the year, the Jersey Shore Alpaca Farm allows visitors to mingle with the alpacas and and during the holidays, they dress up the animals in Christmas scarves and allow guests to do special holiday photo shoots.  It's an Instagram dream come true --- you and an alpaca dressed up for the holidays.

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Holiday PhotoShoots! It’s that time again - when our lady alpacas get dressed in their holiday scarves and visitors are able to go into the pen for photos! We are planning Photoshoots every Saturday in December (a little schedule change from previous years). The December Saturdays are 12/7, 12/14, 12/21 and 12/28. Also, we are changing the format a bit, as the alpacas were really stressed after all the haltering and picture-taking last year. This year, we purchased an Amish wagon, which we will decorate, and the alpacas can eat hay out of the back, so you can sit in the front of the wagon or stand next to it and have alpacas in the background! Visitors will still be in the pen with the girls (in their scarves), but the alpacas will have a zone that is off-limits to people, if they choose to retreat there. It gets so crazy busy (400-500 people!) that this year we had to do something to respect their "hands off" nature. The wagon worked great during Farm Day, so we think it will be a series of successful Photoshoots as well. Of course, there will also be plenty of opportunity for Holiday shopping in our farm store! Check our farm store link on our website to see what we offer! Hope to see you in December! Below is some additional information: Photoshoot hours are 10am-4pm, no reservations necessary (or even possible). Please bring your own cameras, as we will not have a photographer present (but we will help with taking photos). There is no admission charge, but we will have our donation box on the fence - as always, donations are not required but are greatly appreciated. If rain is predicted, or extremely cold weather, please check with us the day before the Photoshoot, as we may need to cancel. You can also check our FB page. #alpacas #jerseyshorealpacas #alpacasofinstagram

A post shared by Jersey Shore Alpacas (@jerseyshorealpacas) on Nov 4, 2019 at 5:36pm PST

The farm is open Saturdays from 10am-4pm.  It is located at 521 Route 47 South in Cape May.  For more info, check them out online at jerseyshorealpacas.com.