Column: Santa’s reindeer
Published 6:05 pm Thursday, December 20, 2007
By Staff
For some time I've been planning on doing this pre- Christmas week's column on Santa's reindeer. Wouldn't you know it? Last weekend National Geographic stole my thunder with a TV program on this and other Christmas lore topics. However, I think they left enough unturned ground for me to proceed without too much risk of excessive plagiarism.
We've all grown up with Santa's magical flying reindeer an integral part of Christmas. We won't burden ourselves with the specifics of teaching reindeer to fly, especially with enough speed and stamina to hit every house in the world in a single night. We'll just assume reindeer are much easier to teach than pigs and with 364 days of the year with nothing to do but work out (how else do you stay warm at the North Pole?) they would be in phenomenal physical condition. Of course, the concept of St. Nicholas, a.k.a. Santa Claus, has been around for centuries. The problem in the old days was lack of global communication. The few eye witnesses that had actually seen Santa had no way of passing it on so accounts of Santa and how he operated varied greatly from region to region. They didn't even know his mode of transportation. It wasn't until 1823 when a small town New York newspaper published the anonymous poem "A Visit From St. Nicholas" that the true facts of Santa and his reindeer became widely known. This poem, more commonly known as "Twas The Night Before Christmas," is singly responsible for the details of Santa's appearance, that he came on Christmas Eve, that he delivered toys and the fact that his transportation was a sleigh drawn by eight flying reindeer. The poem even revealed the names of the reindeer.
So where'd Santa get his magical reindeer? All there is up North Pole way are caribou. Actually, reindeer and caribou are the same species. Eight subspecies of caribou are native all around the northern globe from Scandinavia, across Siberia, Alaska, northern Canada and Greenland. Reindeer are simply semi-domesticated caribou. Some 5,000 years ago folks along what is now the Russian/Mongolian border successfully tamed caribou. Over the centuries they became highly prized livestock and today in Russia alone some two and a quarter million reindeer provide meat, hides, transportation (both by pulling sleds and riding) and antlers for the Oriental medicinal market. While wild caribou remain true to form and color within the subspecies, reindeer vary considerably in color and size. It is suspected all reindeer are derived from the original stock for, other than Santa and his warp speed reindeer, no one has since been able to tame wild caribou.
Santa's most famous member, Rudolph, didn't appear until 1939. Rudy was first detailed by Bob May in a book marketed by his employer, Montgomery Ward. Rudolph was further cemented in history by the song, Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer, recorded by Gene Autry. Rudy's red nose is not as bizarre as it may seem. Obviously he has oversized nasal turbinate bones. This structure is unique to caribou and increases the nostril surface area, exposing more surface blood vessels. The cold, dry, incoming air is warmed and mixed with exhaled air to add moisture. Rudy's oversize turbinate bones simply expose more blood vessels, giving his nose the red color.
Many other authors and songwriters over the years have attempted to document as many as 30 more reindeer in Santa's herd. A 1990s TV special, "Annabelle's Wish," even tried to place a cow on the team. How ridiculous is that? The falling cow pies would be extremely hazardous, something Santa would never allow. For reasons such as this none held the credibility of Rudolph and weren't accepted by the public.
Santa could find future troubles, though. Every eye witness reports his reindeer have antlers. Both male and female reindeer have antlers. The females retain theirs until after birthing in the spring but the guys drop their antlers in late fall, before Christmas. That means Santa's entire team is females. Sooner or later those gals are going to get old and tired. With no calves-in-training what's Santa going to do then? Carpe diem.