Santa's Reindeer

Watching one of my coworkers walk by with a set of antlers on got me to thinking of Santa's Reindeer. A few years ago I was with a friend and her young nieces when they visited a local farmer's market advertising "Live Real Santa's Reindeer." I walked up to the little petting zoo area with Emily, a three year old at the time to look at the reindeer. It was only 2 days before Christmas and Emily in all her three-year-old-wisdom looks at Dasher and Prancer and then back at me and says, "If Santa's Reindeer are here, how is he going to fly his sleigh?" I swear every mother and child in the area stopped and looked at me.
Thinking fast I replied, "Well, these are the back up reindeer. You see, Santa has his first string team that he always uses but there are also extra reindeer in case one of the regulars gets sick. These are some of the extras that Santa lent to the farm so you could meet them. He still has his regular team and some of the backups at the North Pole."
After a short pause Emily simply said, "Oh. Can I feed them?"
While she put the change into the feed machine a mother walked past me and quietly said, "You're good."
Another Christmas crisis averted. Whew.