For the Water starter, how about a dolphin Pokemon? Possibly Water/Psychic in later stages(since Dolphins are known to be very intelligent) and specially based. For the Fire starter, how about a
Volcano Rabbit Pokemon? There are rabbit Pokemon already though, so a different idea might be better. For the Grass starter, maybe a mistletoe Pokemon? It is commonly associated with kissing and Christmas and other happy things like that, while it's actually a weed that takes nutrition from other plants, so Grass/Dark typing is an option.
Any other thoughts/ideas?