It is Christmas time again! And as we all know, with that come many fun traditions ~ including the visit from Santa Claus!

I was outraged to imagine, as it was brought up to me on Facebook, that Santa may have all male reindeer in his herd. I would report that to the EEOC however, I have come to find out that Santa’s reindeer are likely not all male. No, they didn’t go through ‘a change’. Apparently, due to some breed characteristics, the antler-brandished flight crew should be correctly categorized as mixed gender. Let me share with you some wisdom from the Alaska Department of Fish and Game:

“while both male and female reindeer grow antlers in the summer each year, male reindeer drop their antlers at the beginning of winter, usually late November to mid-December. Female reindeer, however, retain their antlers until after they give birth in the spring. Therefore, according to every historical rendition depicting Santa's reindeer, every single one of them, from Rudolph to Blitzen..... had to be a female. "

Now, notice this snippet attempts to make it a fact that male reindeer couldn’t possibly be pulling Santa’s sleigh because they lose their antlers before Santa takes to the skies. Of course this makes sense as his reindeer, depicted in all of those ‘proof photos’, have antlers 

SO, since I can never trust just one side of anything I hear or read, I did a bit more research and came up with some more information on Santa’s hiring choices. Apparently, there is some truth behind the male reindeer losing their antlers sometime in November through mid-December. While the female retains hers through the winter, I found that there are exceptions to the male rule ~ if the male is ‘young’ or neutered, he may not lose his antlers on the same cycle.

With the information I have come across, I have concluded that Santa may well be in the desired limits for diverse hiring ~ way to go Santa.

*PS* Did  you guys know that reindeer are domesticated caribou? Of course I am simplifying it but check out the groovy links below for more information:

http://www.doi.gov/

http://www.taiga.net/yourYukon/col061.html

http://www.iucnredlist.org/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reindeer