Are Santa’s Reindeer Female?

Magic certainly abounds when it comes to the jolly man at the North Pole, but if Santa Claus’s reindeer have a life cycle like wild reindeer, then yes, his animal helpers are all female. Reindeer, which are also known as caribou, are a species of large deer found in the Arctic tundra and the nearby boreal forests of Greenland, Scandinavia, Russia, Alaska, and Canada. Interestingly, they are the only deer species in which the females have antlers. Females keep their antlers all winter to help defend feeding sites of reindeer lichen from other reindeer. Males, on the other hand, shed their antlers in late fall and do not regrow them until spring. Given that antlers are usually depicted on Santa’s reindeer as they are silhouetted against the sky on Christmas Eve, it seems reasonable to assume that his reindeer are all female. However, the stories and songs of Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer make it clear that he is a male, so maybe nature’s rules don’t always apply to flying caribou.

According to the common (modernized) version of “A Visit from St. Nicholas” (1823), the names of Santa’s reindeer are:

• Dasher
• Dancer
• Prancer
• Vixen
• Comet
• Cupid
• Donner
• Blitzen