Reindeer may not fly, but they are real; and they do just about everything else in the classic Christmas story, outside of speaking in a human tongue to young would-be dentists. They do live in extremely cold conditions, they do pull sleds, and in particularly cold temperatures, their noses do turn a bit red.
The species Rangifer tarandus includes caribou and reindeer, which are also part of the deer family of deer, elk, and moose. The name “reindeer” is often used to describe the variety domesticated by humans and employed to pull sleds. Most commonly, the name refers to the Northern European animals that live in Siberia, Greenland and northern Asia. Both male and female Rangifer tarandus do have antlers – though at different times of the year. The females bear their antlers starting typically in May and keep them until they bear new calves in the spring. Males grow their antlers starting sometime in February and shed them in November; draw what conclusions you will when you see Santa gathering a team of antler-bound reindeer for his Christmas rounds in December.
Due to the dense capillaries in their nasal cavities, blood flow in the nose increases when the weather is particularly frigid, keeping their noses warm as they root around in the snow looking for food. It also helps to regulate their internal body temperature, but most interestingly, this flow of blood actually turns their noses a shade of red – not unlike humans in the cold.
It’s evident that reindeer were domesticated by humans thousands of years ago, by ancient caves in France and Germany yielding reindeer bones. Chinese annals dating back two thousand years document the use of tamed reindeer, as do Marco Polo’s journals. People used reindeer at that time much the way we use horses today, for transporting people and supplies. Reindeer can run up to 40 miles per hour, even attached to a sled. To this day there are people in Canada, Serbia, and Northern Europe using them for that purpose as well as for clothing and food.
In 1821, New York writer William Gilley published a children’s booklet that teamed reindeer with good old Santa Claus. The next year, Clement Clarke Moore would publish “A Visit From St. Nick,” which most of us know as “The Night Before Christmas.” Building on this pairing, it was department stores of the 20th century that deserve the credit for the indelible image of the official crew of Christmas.
In 1926, Macy’s became the first store to display Santa, his sleigh, and live reindeer; and in 1939, Montgomery Ward distributed 2.4 million free coloring books about Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer illustrated by ad man Robert L. May and written with the help of his four-year-old daughter. By 1946 they had handed out six million. The post-war demand for the story skyrocketed, and in 1948 May’s brother-in-law Johnny Marks wrote the definitive song about Rudolph. Gene Autry’s version recorded the next year sold 2.5 million copies, and to date has sold over 25 million.
