By day, I am a school counselor at a private school here in Florida. A couple of years ago, I had asked one of my Senior students what her favorite Christmas tradition was growing up. She said, ” My mom is amazing at Christmas and everything is so festive, but my favorite tradition is spreading reindeer food on the lawn every year for Santa’s reindeer.”
This young lady said they still did it occasionally, in the name of tradition, and I thought it was the most adorable thing ever! Shortly after, her mom came into my office with none other than a package of reindeer food. (Thank God for sweet parents when you work in education!)
I took the package home to my kiddos, who were only 3 and 1 at the time, and reindeer food has been a Christmas Eve tradition since.
Reindeer food is just two (maybe 3) simple ingredients, making it also one of the simplest Christmas traditions for kids.
Reindeers love oats (in case you didn’t know).
So while Santa is in the living room stuffing stockings, his 8 furry friends can nibble away on the lawn to any cheap quick oats you may have in your cabinet.
Alternatively, you can find the container at the dollar store.
Mix in some red glitter and…voila…reindeer food.Â
We added some colorful green sugar, because I had it on hand. Plus, I knew red and green would make Santa happy!
But, why glitter?
The glitter helps Santa’s reindeer see the oats in the lawn!
They will be flying at night, after all.
If you have an inquisitive child like I do, who asks things like ” How can they eat glitter? You can’t eat glitter?” Simply answer that Santa’s reindeer have much stronger digestive systems…. or that the glitter is magical for them. Whatever works.
The kids LOVE mixing it all up.
I found these super cute reindeer bags at the Dollar Tree, so we made some extra to package up as little gifts for Josiah’s classmates.
Amazon has some cute ones, as well.
I created a printable poem to attach to the bag to make it extra cute.
There are variations of reindeer food poems floating around online, but I wanted to be unique and created my own ( which you can have, too!)
Simply cut out the printable, hole punch and attach to the bag of reindeer food or with a ribbon!
On Christmas Eve, take your kiddos out front and let them spread the magical reindeer food on the lawn to welcome Santa’s sleigh. Then send them off to bed with visions of sugarplums dancing in their heads!
What are your favorite family Christmas traditions? I would love to hear about them in the comments!
I would LOVE to give you my free Reindeer Food Printable. Just sign up below and Santa will deliver it to your inbox soon!
Vicky Pietz
Making reindeer food is such a fun activity. It has been a few years since I did this with my daughter. How nice that you have a printable that can easily be downloaded and used to make this tradition fun and beautiful.
Debbie Huckeba
This is such a cute idea for kids. And I’m sure they enjoy making it. Very creative!!
April J
Inquisitive adult here : ) what actually happens to the oats? Do animals eat it?
flipflopweekend
I would imagine so. Rain and wind will blow them away or into the ground and birds or small animals will get it. Sometimes people have issue with spreading glitter outside. I only use a little bit, so I don’t think much of it. But, if folks are not comfortable doing that, I know some people who just put a pile of it in a bowl outside at night for the reindeer…and then after the kids go to bed just bring it and dump some and spread a bit in the bowl to make it look eaten 🙂 My kids have always been conscientious about feeding the reindeer every year since starting 🙂
erin
This is so fun! I remember growing up we had friends that did reindeer food, we went over to their house on Christmas Eve and sprinkled it on the lawn, such a fun memory!
Vasundhra
Such an adorable Christmas tradition! Making reindeer food with kids would be so much fun.
Julie
This is the cutest Christmas activity I’ve ever heard of! I’m obsessed with the oats and glitter!! Love it!!!
Tiffany
This is so cute! They had a reindeer food station at my son’s school recently when we went to meet Santa. He is only 1, so definitely more interested in the new present Santa gave him than making reindeer food, but I can’t wait to try it with him when he gets older. How cute!
Lauren
I used to make reindeer food as a kid! Such good memories!
Claire @ The Ladybirds' adventures
We made reindeer food last year. My eldest loved it. Thanks for sharing this with #bloggerpinparty
cara
This is the cutest idea! I need to try this with my kiddos!
Angela
Such a cute idea and so easy for kids to help make!
Meg
haha I love the explanation of the reindeers digestive systems. Very authentic and believable. LOL you are such a fun mommy.