Do all the other reindeer actually do anything?

Well, I was going to say more about what happened at the reindeer races. But truth to tell, my old bear brain is still a bit befuddled by it. So I’ll leave it for a bit longer.

I thought instead I’d say a bit more about what the reindeer in Yule Town do generally.

You see, at any time Santa might have up to ten reindeer on his team (though in 1971, he had to make do with five, and in 2016 he technically had none at all, due to the terrible reindeer influenza pandemic. Thankfully, even though I have to remind him to do basic things like comb his beard and drink his tea before it goes cold, Santa’s not as daft as he looks, and he came up with a decent solution.)

Anyway, there’s actually something like 200 reindeer living and working in Yule Town at any one time. Some own some of Yule Town’s finest restaurants, others work in data entry for the Naughty & Nice Database (though they need special hoofboards for typing). There’s even reindeer working with Santa’s RedHats in Research, Development and Magical Shennanigans.

A Reindeer called Bob carrying out some data entry.

Reindeer, even have their own pet name for Santa, calling him Whitebeard, even though Santa likes to pretend that his facial hair is still strawberry blonde.

I think though, possibly all of them secretly yearn to help pull Santa’s sleigh one day. Maybe even those who are afraid of flying!

One last thing though, is to note that of all the places people might want to visit in Yule Town, the reindeer poop pile isn’t one of them!