Are Santa’s Reindeer Female? (An update)

Status: Debunking an urban legend
Last year there was some discussion on the site about the gender of Santa's reindeer. The theory (as stated in an email that was doing the rounds) is that Santa's reindeer all have to be female because male reindeer drop their antlers at the beginning of winter, whereas female reindeer retain their antlers until the spring. Big Gary, who's wintering in Alaska, has sent along this photo of "a bull reindeer in Fairbanks, Alaska, this Wednesday, December 21, 2005," which pretty much settles the question of whether male reindeers can have their antlers in late December, around Christmas time. They obviously can. So Santa's reindeer could be male or female. Thanks, Gary.
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Animals Urban Legends

Posted on Mon Dec 26, 2005


Comments

Uhhh, I hate to break it to you, but Santa's reindeer are actually fictional. I also heard a rumour that they can't fly and their noses don't light up, either.
Posted by Harvard Irving  on  Fri Dec 30, 2005  at  07:50 AM
Take a look at their names. Probably something other than your traditional male or female by old-fashioned stereotype. I mean, what sort of male is named PRANCER, or CUPID! The Cupid of Roman religious myth was genderless as I remember. But I haven't checked any sources on the issue lately.
Posted by Christopher Cole  on  Sat Dec 31, 2005  at  08:02 PM
Cupid of mythology (also known as Eros) was a male figure. Aphrodite or Venus was his female equivalent (and, in some versions, his mother!).
The jury's still out on Prancer.
Posted by Big Gary in North America  on  Sun Jan 01, 2006  at  03:46 PM
Female.
Posted by Sports Bettor  on  Thu Jan 05, 2006  at  12:29 PM
ok the first person who made a comment is hella stupid. And who would ever make a stupid debate about deer. You have to be REALLY bored. Since we wasted time to talk about reindeer, why don't we talk about what came first, the chicken or the egg! :wow:
Posted by terra  on  Sun Jan 15, 2006  at  05:32 PM
Which came first, the chicken or the egg? The answer is obvious - the squid.
Posted by Christopher Cole  on  Mon Jan 16, 2006  at  11:06 AM
Castrated male raindeer keep there antlers too!.
Posted by Iridium  on  Mon Jan 16, 2006  at  05:00 PM
I think vixen is female as vixen means female fox. Dancer and Prancer just HAVE to be girls and Rudoph is definety a boy
Posted by Ciaran  on  Wed Nov 21, 2007  at  06:15 AM
male caribou lose their antlers in the beginning of winter. Winter officially starts on `12/21, thus meaning that the caribou Santa uses may not lose their antlers until the 26th. Also, they would take too much time to get where they need to go, because they always follow directions exactly, no matter what crazy side roads they take you down. Also, Santa's reindeer are magicalful, so they don't have to follow the rules of narmalfulness, cuz they ain't not normalful. So says me, a Republican.
Posted by Mike  on  Tue Dec 25, 2007  at  07:23 PM
😠 Harvard Erving, are you from this planet? Get your facts straight! Scrooge!
Posted by bonida  on  Wed Dec 03, 2008  at  11:55 AM
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