Holiday This 'N That #3

Santa Claus may employ male and female elves in his workshop, but did you know that the team pulling the sleigh on Christmas Eve was female?

 

Out of some 40 species of deer, reindeer are the only deer species where both male and female have antlers. 

Males lose the antlers in winter usually after the rutting (mating) season in November and December. Male reindeer not only use antlers to impress other male reindeer, but to fight during mating season. So, when Christmas comes around, males are without antlers. 

In contrast, female reindeer retain antlers throughout winter until giving birth in the spring, when they drop them. Females can use antlers for protection when pregnant and to protect their newborn, usually against wolves, their primary predator. Their antlers re also used to brush away snow when foraging for food in winter.

If reindeer did fly from the North Pole around the world at Christmas, only female reindeer would be prepared for the trip.

Because in preparation for winter, female reindeer build up to nearly 50 percent body fat giving them extra inches of thick fat on their hindquarters. This helps keep them warm in temperatures as low as -45 degrees Fahrenheit. Male reindeer typically deplete most of their energy reserves during the previous mating season and weigh in at around 5 percent body fat.

Santa has been around for centuries. Reindeer that fly and pull Santa didn’t show up until the 1800s. The first known written account of reindeer and Santa Claus was in 1821. That’s when a New York printer published a booklet, A New Year's Present that mentioned reindeer leading Santa’s sleigh through night in the an illustrated children's poem Old Santeclaus with Much Delight.

In 1823, the Troy Sentinel published Clement Clarke Moore's famous poem, A Visit From St. Nicholas, also known as The Night Before Christmas, which introduced eight flying reindeer pulling a sleigh and identified them by name: Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Donner, and Blixen. It never stated whether they were male or female reindeer.

In 1939, Robert L. May created Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer for Chicago department store Montgomery Ward. In 1949, Johnny Marks penned a song Rudolph the Red-Nosed
Reindeer.

While the reindeer names in Moore’s poem could apply to females, Rudolph not so much. 

The first line of the last stanza refers to Rudolph as male: Then how the reindeer loved him…

And, the song mentions something common today, bullying. Check out these lyrics: All of the other reindeer used to laugh and call him names, they never let poor Rudolph join in any reindeer games.

Seems no matter what sex, Rudolph had a tough time.

Despite scientific evidence that the team pulling Santa’s sleigh would have been female reindeers, they are not usually featured in popular culture. Take these examples:

The Santa Clause movies (1994, 2002, 2006) feature reindeers identified as male. Comet is featured in the 1994 film movies and is Santa's primary way to travel to and from the North Pole. Chet, a baby reindeer, appears in The Santa Clause 2 (The Mrs Clause) and The Santa Clause 3 (The Escape Clause) films and is identified as a young male reindeer.

Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (1964) an animated special and Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer: The Movie (1998) are about the reindeer who first appeared in a 1939 story by Robert L. May.

Sven, a fictional reindeer in the Frozen (2013) movie, is owned by Kristoff, an ice delivery man. The filmmakers created him as male.

Prancer is the central character in two films: Prancer: A Christmas Tale (1989) and Prancer Returns (2001). Prancer is referred to as "he" in the film, ironically, the reindeer that played the lead was Boo, a pregnant female.

So, the next time you hear a holiday song or see a film which mentions or includes reindeer, know that ladies have the upper hand over males for helping Santa at Christmas.

It’s a proven scientific fact.

Are you dreaming of a White Christmas?

If so, you're not alone

In the U.S., we’re obsessed not only with the thought of a wintery holiday, but with everything that goes with it — sleigh rides, fireplaces, cocoa and cookies, Santa, the North Pole, warm mittens and scarves, walks in the snow. 

Christmas is when those images seem to become fixed in our minds.

Only about 40% of the 48 states are typically snow-covered by Christmas, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

This means that many live where it never snows at Christmas.

If a white Christmas will never be a reality for many, why do we obsess about it?

Blame it on nostalgia, books and music, all of which have presented what Christmas should look like in a perfect world. Many featured winter time activities amid snow.

A writer to blame is English novelist Charles Dickens, author of the seasonally popular A Christmas Carol, first published in 1843. The story details an English Christmas that includes cold and snow at Christmas. A Christmas Carol became a best seller in America aided by Dickens’ 1867 reading tour in the U.S. around Christmas time. 

According to historical records, it’s possible that London had snow in 1843 as described in the novel. Snowfall in London was more common in winter then. It aligns with what’s called the Little Ice Age, a period of unusually cold temperatures from about 1300 to 1850. It was still occurring in the mid-19th century in Dickens time.

While you can't always count on a white Christmas in the UK, there's an exception. In London's Covent Garden, artificially produced snow has ushered in the season hourly for over five years.

An American writer popularized the idea of a white Christmas as well. In 1868, Louisa May Alcott’s novel Little Women was first published. It begins on a snowy day just before Christmas in New England.

The connection between Christmas and snow grew thanks to major popular illustrated magazines, most produced in the Northeast, published stories of snow at Christmas — the Victorian version of today’s Hallmark holiday movies.

Snowy images were popularized by New York printmakers Currier and Ives (Nathaniel Currier and James Merritt Ives) from 1835 to 1907. The company designed and sold hand-painted lithographic works, many of these depicted idyllic winter scenes.

You may recall that the firm was featured in the populars song Sleigh Ride in the line, It’ll nearly be like a picture-print by Currier and Ives.

Ironically, composer Leroy Anderson, later said he formed the idea for the piece during a July 1946 heat wave, finishing it in February 1948. (Anderson also composed the Typewriter Song and the Syncopated clock.)

Why must Christmas be white?

Blame it on Irving Berlin and Bing Crosby, the composer and crooner responsible for the popular holiday song. According to Guinness World Records, White Christmas is the best-selling single ever with an estimated 50 million copies sold worldwide. Who hasn’t heard the opening lines reminding us of childhood Christmases?

I'm dreaming of a white Christmas

Just like the ones I used to know

Where the tree tops glisten 

And children listen

To hear sleigh bells in the snow

Like the Sleigh Ride song, this one was also penned in a warm weather month in sunny Beverly Hills, CA by Irving Berlin in 1938. The song's original first verse, later cut, was specific:

The sun is shining, the grass is green

The orange and palm trees sway

There’s never been such a day

In Beverly Hills, L. A.

But it’s December the 24th

And I am longing to be up north

Just mentioning snow in a song makes people think of Christmas, take these songs for example: Let it Snow, Baby, It's Cold Outside, Frosty the Snowman, Jingle Bells, I’ve Got my Love to Keep Me Warm, Winter Wonderland, Snow. Most of these songs are about cold, not  Christmas, just about cold, many don't even mention the holiday.

Don't get fooled by recent blasts of cold and snow in much of the U.S. This year’s record warm fall (September to November) indicates that 2024 could be one of the nation’s warmest, possibly the warmest, year on record. Global warming is having an impact, fueling an overall decline in snow and extreme cold events not only in the U.S., but worldwide. The impacts of are expected to intensify annually.

While the forecast a White Christmas in 2024 is still uncertain for most people, those in search of this ultimate holiday weather may want to begin the trek west, or north.

If you're looking for an almost guaranteed white Christmas, you could go to Fairbanks, AK.  According to data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) there's been snow on the ground nearly every Christmas since weather record keeping began.

This year is no exception. According to the National Weather Service, the city had over 2 feet of snow on the ground as mid-December.

Alaska too far from home for you?

There’s other destinations, perhaps closer. Typically, you could find a white Christmas in MN, ME, upstate and western NY, the Allegheny Mountains of PA and WV, anywhere in ID and, of course, the Rockies or the Sierra Nevada Mountains.

We won't experience a white Christmas here in Nashua, NH, according to the forecast.

Update: Today, a light dusting of snow covered the ground in late afternoon, hardly enough to last until Christmas next Wednesday.

But, we'll be at home watching White Christmas, It's a Wonderful Life and listening to holiday tunes where snow is always a sure thing at Christmas.

May your days be sunny and bright and may all your Christmases be white