We like reindeer. We like reindeer swings made from recycled tyres, we like reindeer models made from recycled cardboard and we like the reindeer that pull Santa’s sleigh. We also have a friend who likes hunting reindeer (you know who you are, Hatvig), but thankfully he lives in Norway where they take reindeer husbandry very seriously, so the reindeer population is not at risk.

Reindeer are most famous for getting Santa where he needs to be. The poem by Clement C. Moore entitled A Visit from St Nicholas is mainly credited for this contemporary Christmas idea. His poem includes the eight flying reindeer and their names:

when, what to my wondering eyes should appear,
but a miniature sleigh, and eight tiny rein-deer,
with a little old driver, so lively and quick,
I knew in a moment it must be St. Nick.

More rapid than eagles his coursers they came,
And he whistled, and shouted, and call'd them by name:
"Now, Dasher! Now, Dancer! Now, Prancer, and Vixen!
"On, Comet! On, Cupid! On, Donder and Blitzen!

Rudolph was later added due to the popularity of the Christmas song, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.