Reindeer!

It is reindeer season again, that wonderful time of the year when I can buy mugs and ornaments and pajamas with reindeer on them.  And plates.  And socks.  And cuddly reindeer which I claim are fabric ornaments, because that sound less like I am still five.  Oh, and reindeer candle holders.  We must not forget those.  Non-reindeer candle holders just aren't as good.  Not enough by way of antlers.

As we often can't find reindeer items in the shops during the rest of the year, I make sure to stock up when the supplies are good.

This weekend, we went up to Keswick for a weekend away for my birthday.  We often get a bit of Christmas shopping done.  Now, you can nearly always rely on the Lakes to give you sheep-themed gifts (mugs, socks, jumpers, notebooks and so forth, not to mention paintings and ornaments), but in December, Keswick is as full of reindeer as it is of sheep.  Well, nearly.  There is the Herdy shop in Keswick, dedicated to selling one particular brand of sheep-theme mugs, tea-towels and mats.

There are plenty of reindeer to be found, though.

This year, it got even better.  There were real reindeer.

They were down from the Cairngorms and usually run wild(ish) in the hills.  Except for this guy:

This is Grumpy.  Or maybe it was Grundig.  He looked grumpy.  He was raised by hand and the other reindeer did not think he was a reindeer.  I wanted to adopt him, but I was informed that we were not putting him on the backseat of the Suzuki Swift and carting him back to South Yorkshire.  Apparently, it was felt that Grundig would not fit in harmoniously with my three collies.  I don't see why.  I could see him curled up on the settee with the others...

Anyway, I spent about half an hour watching these reindeer and almost the first thing which popped into my mind was a question.

Who the hell decided these creatures look aerodynamic?

Out of every animal I have seen, I have to say that reindeer are pretty low down on the 'look like they're about the lift off' list.  Sheep look more likely to fly.  Horses.  Not reindeer.  Yet, someone decided these are the animals who must pull a flying sleigh, in December.

I knew that male reindeer shed their antlers, but I did not know it was any entire male (the castrated ones keep their horns for longer) or that the entire males shed their horns before Christmas.  I enjoyed learning more about reindeer.

They had some baby reindeer there, as well.  Only six months old.

Every now and then, a really mardy reindeer ran at one of them and the other reindeer had to get out of its way.  This appears to count as good parenting to a reindeer.

I also learnt that reindeer's coats feel something like a carpet and that they look a bit like a horse/goat close up, and smell of horse.  It has only made me love them more.

Then I went and bought some more not-really reindeer to place around my house for the Christmas season.