No, I’m not suggesting you feed your children grass and lichens. One of the room parents at my son’s school made up the following recipe for each of the kids at their holiday party. Given my last name (Rudolph), it’s surprising I’d never heard of this before; I’m guessing it’s not that unusual. Still, it’s a fun little item you can give to your kids for Christmas, if you’re observing it.
Mix 1/4 cup plain, dry oatmeal (regular or instant) with about 1/2 tsp each red and green decorative sugar crystals.
My son’s room parent added this note to the bag:
On Christmas Eve,
Sprinkle this magic reindeer food
On your lawn.
The magic glitter
Sparkling in the moonlight
And the smell of oats
Will help guide
Rudolph to your house!
Anyone have any other traditions for feeding Santa and his team? (Me? I’d go multi-culti and leave him some latkes.)
I see that reindeer food has gotten more environmentally friendly over the last 8 years. When my son brought some home from preschool, it was oats with red and green glitter.
One year we had several real deer walk through our yard overnight on Christmas Eve. When my son woke up the next morning and saw the deer prints frozen into the ground, he was beyond thrilled, and absolutely convinced they were reindeer tracks. Fortunately, it was not the same year as the one with the reindeer food, or we’d probably have been sprinkling oaty glitter in our yard for the next several years.
Too funny! You know, someone could probably make money selling fake deer-print stampers for parents to use.