It’s Christmas time and that means decorations are everywhere! But rather than buying another set of sparkling lights, why not try to make decorations yourself? The beautiful scent of cinnamon is an extra touch that will make it even more special. This is a great Christmas activity in which you can practice your artistic and engineering skills

Article Contents

1. Why are Reindeers pulling Santa sleigh?
2. Legend of Santa Claus’s reindeer
3. Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer
4. Materials needed for Christmas reindeer
5. Instructions on how to make Christmas reindeer
6. What will you develop and learn by making Christmas reindeer

Why are Reindeers pulling Santa sleigh?

The Reindeers and Santa bringing presents is a relatively new tradition and it dates back to the year 1823. Then, Clement Clarke Moore wrote the poem The Night Before Christmas that describes Santa Claus as we know him today.

But Raindeers pulling sleigh date way back, to the Norse mythology, where god Thor was transported in a chariot pulled by reindeers (or horned goats in some versions). Also, reindeers were domesticated for more than 2 000 years and had a rich history of helping humans in most arctic and subarctic regions of the world. Reindeers were also used in World War 2 by Russians to pull supplies and injured soldiers through the harsh winter terrain.

For centuries, raindeers were associated with winter festivities in Eastern Europe and Scandinavia. During the Middle ages, Eastern Europe and Scandinavia were starting to convert to Christianity and the ancient symbolism of a reindeer became a part of Chrismas celebration.

The Reindeers are the symbol of creativity, knowledge, and resourcefulness. They also symbolize a safe journey and endurance through travels. No wonder the raindeers were chosen to pull Santa sleigh since he is on a difficult mission. He needs to deliver gifts to all the children of the world in just one night! And for that, he surely needs help from these magnificent animals.

Legend of Santa Claus’s reindeer

Christmas Eve means presents from Santa, right? We leave him milk and cookies, we write him letters, we try to be a good whole year to get our presents… But let’s talk about his little helpers, flying reindeers who make it possible for Santa to delivers all those presents!

According to the legend, there are eight of them: Vixen, Dancer, Dasher, Prancer, Comet, Donner, Cupid, and Blitzen. They pull Santa’s sleigh on Christmas Eve so he can deliver those presents all around the world. How do they fly? No one knows.  But what about Rudolph, isn’t he the most famous of all reindeer?

Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer

The first mention of Rudolph was in a booklet by Robert L. May in 1939. He was a young reindeer, mocked by his peers because he was different. He had a huge luminous red nose, unique to him and because of it, he was rejected and lonely. Despite that, he never gave up on trying to be helpful and kind to everyone around him.

And everything changed one Christmas Eve when dense fog prevented Santa from moving forward with his sleigh. Rudolph’s shiny nose was still clearly visible so Santa managed to navigate with his help and brought presents to the children. Since then, Rudolph became the ninth reindeer, leading Santa’s sleigh every Christmas Eve.

So in the end, his greatest “flaw” actually helped everyone and made him famous. And the other reindeer learned not to judge so quickly. 

And now when we brushed up on the legend and history of Santa and his four-legged helpers, let’s get to making our own Christmas cinnamon reindeer.

Materials needed for Christmas reindeer

• Cinnamon sticks. You can buy them in any grocery store so they shouldn’t be hard to come by. We will need 3 sticks so one package should be enough for 1 cinnamon reindeer.
• Hot glue. We will need just a small amount of hot glue to connect all assets.
• Decorative Ribbon. Choose any decorative ribbon that you like. 10 centimeters of ribbon is enough length to be able to hang the reindeer anywhere we want.
• Red Cloth Ribbon. This will be for our nose. It doesn’t have to be red, but Rudolf had a red nose so if you want to make Rudolf, we want to have red cloth. We can use any old cloth, like an old t-shirt for this.
• Scissors. We will need the scissors to cut our ribbons and most importantly, to cut and make the cloth ribbon.
• Plastic eyes. This will come in handy to make realistic reindeer. You can buy them in almost any DIY shop. But as an alternative, we can cut two more cloth ribbons and make the eyes, just like the nose.

Instructions on how to make Christmas reindeer

Making Christmas Reindeer decoration is very simple and there are lots of opportunities for creativity. 

For step by step instructions of one Christmas reindeer version, watch the video at the beginning of the article!

1. Connect two cinnamon sticks in V shape and glue them with the hot glue. Be careful with the hot glue since it tends to be… Hot! Put the third stick horizontally on top of the other two sticks, so you get a reverse A shape. You just made the reindeer head. And the antlers!
2. Now glue the plastic eyes, one on each side of the V-shaped cinnamon sticks. Glue one eye on each stick, just a bit below the horizontally glued cinnamon stick.
3. Take some old cloth and cut the ribbon using scissors. It will depend on the thickness of the cloth, but somewhere between 20 cm and 40 cm in length will be enough.
4. Roll the cloth ribbon around itself until you get the nose of a good size. You can always cut off the excess ribbon when the nose is of good size. Glue it on the bottom of the face (tip of the V shape).
5. Take the decorative ribbon, 10 centimeters in length will be enough. Connect two ends of the ribbon and glue them to the middle of the horizontal cinnamon stick (reindeer’s forehead).
6. It’s done! You can put it on a Christmas tree or gift it to someone. Not only it’s cute but it also smells great!
7. An alternative to eyes: If you decided to use a cloth to make the eyes, repeat steps 3 and 4 for each of the eyes.

What will you develop and learn by making Christmas reindeer

• Fine motor skills and oculomotor coordination
• Creativity
• Concepts of prejudice and discrimination

If you’re for some more festive activities, be sure to check How to Make a Toilet Roll Christmas Tree and a How to make Pinecone Christmas Tree article. And for more creative activities, we recommend How to make homemade plastic and How to make Cardboard Castle. We wish you a merry Christmas! Hopefully, Rudolph will manage to navigate Santa to your home this year!

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