The Chambers Family: Reindeer Food

Tonight Charlotte and I, with an assist from Daddy (thanks, Honey!) made Reindeer Food for her classmates and (local) cousins Brennan and Jacob.

I can’t take credit for this idea; my Mom gave Charlotte Reindeer Food last year – complete with a fabric bag she made herself. For those that may not know, you spread Reindeer Food on your lawn Christmas Eve, just like you leave milk and cookies for Santa, so that the Reindeer will be drawn to you house! It was a big hit last year, when Charlotte was just beginning to understand Christmas. As I started to think of something Charlotte could do for her class (tying to stay away from candy) this seemed like the perfect project.

I am sure there is a recipe out there for what SHOULD be in reindeer fool but I tried to use things I had on hand, we added stale Cheerios, ALMOST out of date oatmeal, Frosted Wheat cereal, cookie crumbs, red and green glitter, round green sprinkles, and Christmas tree wafers…TADA, Reindeer Food! Anyway, as I usually do with these kinds of projects, I had all the ingredients laid out on the table and just guided her through each step.

We did have a few overzealous stirs of the spoon and some of the Reindeer Food had to be thrown away. (Obviously, the reindeer would not have cared about a few seconds worth of floor time but just in case her classmates decide to try a taste – I made sure everything was eatable and, so, no floor time allowed!)

In preparation, I spent the afternoon hyping this up for Charlotte. We talked about how much work Santa’s Reindeer have to do on Christmas Eve and how nice it would be if she helped her schoolmates by making them Reindeer Food too, etc. By the time we sat down to make the food she was AMPED! I may hav e misjudged how much motivation she needed because she was bouncing off the walls. Unfortunately, we had a few power struggles that may have taken some of the fun away from the project. :( But all in all we had a fun night together creating another neat project. I think the best part was the sneaky way she kept snacking on the ingredients and then would try to ask us questions - about what we were doing, Reindeer or Christmas in general – with her mouth so full we couldn’t understand her half the time! You can see in two of the pictures how she has her cheeks stuffed with reindeer food, kind of like a chipmunk!