For many of you, Christmas is associated with giving presents, and with Santa Claus and reindeer. People from all different religions give presents: for example, Jews give presents at Chanukah, which coincides this year with Christmas, and Hindus give presents at Diwali. Muslims give presents at the time of Ramadan and Eid, while for Buddhists, giving gifts is quite complicated. To put all this in a historical perspective, people started giving presents some 30,000 years ago – thousands of years before the birth of Jesus.
In Christianity, giving presents is also associated with the Magi, the 3 Kings from the East, though many scholars think that they didn't arrive until Jesus was nearly two - they had a long way to come after all! Giving presents developed in the 4th century, with the Bishop (St) Nicholas, though the involvement of reindeer came along much later.
In today's story, we are going to look at reindeer who live in the Arctic, and subarctic areas, across Siberia, Northern Europe, and North America...
My Winter Story – I’m a Reindeer by Charlotte Sebag-Montefiore
Hello! I’m a girl!
You might think I’m not (because I have antlers) – but I am! We girls need our antlers to defend our food patch when the snow is cleared. And I’m lucky, I have big horns, so the other girls respect me. Respect is good! It means you get what you want. I have to grow a new pair every spring though…
I like the springtime, but it’s not here yet. It’s so dark in winter. I can see quite well but I can see better than all the other mammals in the long dark winter… we need to! We need to keep safe from predators you see – excuse the pun!
My eyes turn gold and blue to help me see better - it’s such a pity I can’t see them myself, but I can see the beautiful eyes of my friends and family.
When I was little and my horns were not so big, I used to love the clickety clack of the hooves of the other reindeer. A lovely comforting sound. You wouldn’t want to be alone in the cold darkness with only the howl of the wind and the fear of being attacked, would you?
Thank goodness I can keep warm. My nose is not like yours and it warms the air up before it goes to my lungs (or they might freeze!) and my coat keeps me very cosy because it has two layers of fur. I have two toes and two claws on my feet which help me grip the snow and not slide about. I don’t want to fall over, do I?
When the snow melts in the springtime, it does get slippery. Yesterday, I fell over. I don’t know how I managed it. We were on a hill, but instead of falling against my friends and being supported to stand up again, a lot of us fell over at once!
Scary!
Our hooves kicked each other as we tried to stand up. Our hooves get sharp in winter, and it hurt. I was hurt when I was kicked anyway. The worst of it was the noise! And the little ones, the calves, they couldn’t cope at all…
We were in a dangerous place, too. Open. No trees. Just the sort of place … oh, I don’t like to think about it…
Eagles! Nasty things! Even with my eyes, they are hard to spot in the dark, as they swoop from so high…. And then one did! Like lightning! Straight for a new calf! The talons! So long and sharp! And his vicious, vicious beak!
But the eagle had not taken the mother into account. She sheltered her calf with her horns. We reindeer have horns made of bone so they’re very strong and can’t be hurt. She jagged at the eagle before it dug its talons in her baby. Its wings got tangled in the mother’s horns. I think it broke one of its wings.
I watched, mesmerized, and was so glad to see the eagle struggle to fly off, very much the worse for wear. The mum was exhausted, and the calf – well the calf just nuzzled her. So lucky! I couldn’t think of anything else, I just wanted to get back to the herd.
And so, I’m off! Goodbye!