Santa’s Reindeer, are they Real

Are Santa’s Christmas reindeer real?  Santa’s Christmas reindeer are every bit as real as Santa Claus himself is.  Do you believe in Santa Clause?  Then you must believe in his reindeer or your Christmas presents will never get delivered.

The same as any other reindeer, they are very real to be sure and they are also recognized as caribou in the wildernesses of the North American continent.  Reindeer are deer which lived and roamed freely in great herds around the arctic, subarctic in addition to in the Holarctic regions.  Historically, reindeer had a enormous range that spanned over a variety of continents across the world.  They were found in Scandinavia, Eastern Europe which included Russia, Mongolia and northern China, Greenland, Scotland, Ireland, Alaska, Canada and in the northernmost areas of the United States from Washington to Maine.  Archaeologists have discovered evidence of reindeer habitats as far south as Nevada and Tennessee in the United States and Spain in Europe which date back to the late Pleistocene era from 1.8 million to 10,000 years ago.

In the more recent times of history, reindeer have vanished from many parts of the world and most mainly from the southern areas.  While wild reindeer are still found in large populations in Russian Siberia, Greenland, Alaska and Canada; the tame variety of reindeer are typically seen in northern areas of the Scandinavian countries (particularly Norway) and Russia.  Additionally, reindeer had been brought into Iceland in the 18th century by travelers and they are still found there in large quantity today.  In the 20th century a few Norwegian reindeer were imported into South Georgia, a South Atlantic island where they have formed two distinct colonies that are separated by impassable glaciers.  Likewise, reindeer have been introduced in small numbers in a number of other northern regions and approximately 4,000 of them had been instituted into the French subarctic archipelago of the Kerguelen Islands.

The antlers or horns of all reindeer are shed and grown afresh every year under a thin layer of fur that is called velvet which, in time, is cast off as the antlers or horns grow to their full size and maturity.  To keep reindeer warm in their very frigid environments, their coats have two layers of fur:  the lower layers are dense wool while the outer layers consist of thin hollow stands of hair that are filled with air.  Reindeer eat mostly vegetation that is digested by their four-chambered stomachs.

Unlike Santa’s reindeer which are relatively small and slim, wild and domesticated reindeer are relatively large and weigh up to 700 pounds.  Although wild and domesticated reindeer have very special noses which can warm the incoming air before it reaches their lungs, none of their noses are red and glowing as Rudolph’s is.  Because their hooves adapt to the seasons and to differing terrains, wild and domesticated reindeer can prance and dance and dash and frolic and jump just like Santa’s reindeer can.  But sorry, wild and domesticated reindeer do not have the magic that Santa’s reindeer have so they cannot fly, although I am sure that they would love to.

Reindeer, for the most part do not have individual names but their species have names such as:

 The Tundra reindeer include Arctic Reindeer, Peary Caribou, Svalbard Reindeer, Mountain Wild Reindeer, Porcupine Caribou, Grant’s Caribou and Barren Ground Caribou.
 The Woodland reindeer include Finnish Forest Reindeer, Woodland Caribou, Queen Charlotte Islands Caribou

Each one of Santa’s Christmas reindeer were lucky enough to have been named by Major Henry Livingston, Jr. in 1807 when he wrote a children’s story called “Account of a Visit from St. Nicholas.”  In 1823 Clement Clarke Moore revised this tale, slightly changed some of the reindeer's’ names and the entire children’s tale became enormously popular under its new name: “’Twas the Night before Christmas.’”  The current names for Santa’s reindeer are:  Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Donner and Blitzen.  Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer joined the other eight reindeer when he was brought in from a poem that was written by Robert May in 1939.

So, do Santa’s reindeer really exist?  They do if you believe in them!