(photo courtesy Avi Schwab)
It wouldn’t Christmas without Magic Reindeer Food! This is a staple that we make if we have friends or neighbors over the week before Christmas. At the very latest, we’ll make it on the 24th; amid the cookie baking (for Santa and our friends), we make something special for the reindeer which pull his sleigh.
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For a single batch (enough for one child to spread), mix:
- 1/4 cup oatmeal
- 1/4 cup granulated sugar
- 1/8 cup red/green sugar crystals
Before your child goes to bed on Christmas Eve, she can sprinkle this on the lawn. As this poem indicates, the sparkling crystals will guide the reindeer to your home:
Sprinkle this on your lawn at night
The moon will make it sparkle bright
As Santa’s reindeer fly and roam
It will help them find your home.
The recipe can easily be doubled, or further extended, for more children. We’ve used Ziploc sandwich bags at playgroup parties, and let the kids decorate the printed poem to attach to the outside. I’ve seen larger amounts layered in a clean baby food jar and presented as a hostess gift or favor (that’s a little too close to Martha Stewart for me, I haven’t gone that far!)
It’s a fun little project, and the younger kids look forward to it each year.
Do you have any fun foodie traditions this time of year?
I know this is a stretch, but I’m submitting this as part of Beth Fish Reads’ Weekend Cooking meme. Click over there to find links to other food-related posts. Who knows?! Maybe someone has shared a recipe for an elvish treat!
I bet The Girl would love to do this!
That is really a sweet tradition! I think in Poland they put out hay for the reindeer, or something like that. To keep our Polish roots in the forefront, we celebrate Wigilia every Christmas Eve, which is really just a huge feast, with some special blessed wafers and special prayers. We probably won’t do this at my mom’s, but if we are celebrating the holidays in Florida, I’m making pierogies!
That’s no stretch — reindeer have to eat too!!! I love this idea. I have never heard of it or the poem. Very cute.
I haven’t heard of this poem either but I agree, reindeer have to eat too Add a bot if hot water and it would be fit for most human consumption as well.
I totally agree that is a perfect Weekend Cooking post!
Sandy..just to let you know, I love pierogies. although I have never made them from scratch. Thank goodness for Mrs. T’s!
Well darn, we always left carrots for the reindeer – we didn’t know there was magic food!
Hi Dawn,
That’s a great idea!! I’ll bet the kids get a great kick out of spreading this on the lawn for the reindeer. If I was a kid, I wouldn’t want to go to sleep, just to watch and see if it works. Thanks for sharing. Have a great weekend!
Sherrie
Sherrie’s Stuff
What a clever idea! While my own children are too old to participate in this fun tradition, I plan to file this away for future grandchildren
Thanks for sharing!
What a sweet idea. I can see little ones getting very serious about doing this. Great tradition. Definitely a food idea.
I hope you don’t forget to leave raisins around to show what the reindeer left for YOU! :–)
Too funny…
My daughter just made this for her Reindeer party last Friday. She has it in a ziplock all ready to go! She also made a peanut-butter pine cone that is now hanging in the tree for all the birds.
I love this sort of stuff. Christmas is such a magical time for a kid.
When the reindeer stop at our house, they’ll have to be Game On compliant and settle for carrots.
What a cute idea. We always leave out something for the reindeer and this sounds perfect.
Oh, my nieces do this, too! They get sooo excited about it. My holiday food tradition with them is making “rice krispie treats” but with frosted flakes with green and red food coloring in the shapes of wreaths.
We love it ! Like BermudaOnion above, we’ve only ever done carrots for the reindeer. Glad I spotted this before Christmas Eve
what a great tradition.
This looks like a really cute idea! I have a friend with younger kids who would absolutely love this, so I will point her to this post. As far as Christmas cooking traditions go, the only thing we really do without fail is bake a heap of Christmas cookies, and this year will be no exception!
I like the idea about putting out rasins – perhaps chocolate covered would be more realistic.
I stumbled across this site last month a few weeks before christmas and tried this for my 5 yr old Amelie. It went down a treat and she ended up telling her friends at school and then their parents were phoning us asking about it
Lovely idea, many thanks.