Meet Rudolph's Friends From County Durham This Christmas
Did you know Santa's reindeer really live in County Durham?
You know Dasher and Dancer and Prancer and Vixen, Comet and Cupid and Donner and Blitzen… and that popular one with the red nose. Well, every Christmas there’s plenty of opportunity to meet their friends at events across the region thanks to Rent a Reindeer.
Their owner, George Richardson, takes care of the reindeer in fields behind his garden centre in Cold Hesledon, and has done so for around two decades. ‘We started with three, and we’ve had the herd as high as 150,’ he says. ‘We breed reindeer; live, sleep and talk about reindeer. But it was never our intention to have a reindeer business as it is now. Because we had the garden centre, and because we did Christmas in a very big way with Santa’s grotto, Christmas tree decorations, and everything festive, we started off with three reindeer (on some spare land) and they were purely for our own benefit at the garden centre. After a couple of years we were approached by charities one Christmas to see if we’d consider bringing the reindeer to their charity event, which we did. From there, very organically, was the start of a reindeer hire business.
‘Every year we got busier and busier and did more and more events. We’re currently sitting at just over 100 reindeer, but we’ll be having babies next summer and that breeding is going on now, which is called the rut. That happens in the autumn, and the girls should hopefully be pregnant going through the winter, and will give birth next May, so we should be having somewhere in the region of 40 or 50 babies next year, if the boys have done their job!’
George’s reindeer travel far and wide at Christmastime. ‘Both from a festive point of view because reindeer are of course very Christmassy, but also from an educational point of view,’ he says. ‘We’re explaining about how these animals are highly adapted, how that’s allowed them to survive thousands of years in an Arctic environment, and how scientists are still discovering unique features about these animals, even up to the current day (and will continue to find unique features). They are absolutely amazing. Everybody assumes that where they live is the North Pole, but that’s not entirely true, they live within the Arctic Circle, right the way around the world. That area can go from minus 30 and minus 40 degrees in the darkest parts of the winter into plus 30 in the height of the summer. And everybody forgets that because you’re going from 24 hours a day of darkness to 24 hours a day of sunshine. This is an animal that can adapt and cope with those extreme differences in temperatures.
‘Obviously, in the North East of England, we don’t get down to the minus 40s, thank goodness! But more importantly, we can get up to the 20s and low 30s in the height of the summer and everybody panics about the reindeer and how they can cope – but they can. They have, without getting too technical, various mechanisms within their body to be able to cope with that extreme change in temperature. They have a winter coat that sheds out and they can also control their body temperature through blood exchange, where it’s pumped around the body and they lose heat, so they act like radiators. Then in the winter, they can dramatically reduce the blood supply down to the legs, so they’re not losing heat through their legs in the winter when they’re dredging through the snow.‘
Families enjoy interacting with the reindeer when they meet them, but why are they so friendly in comparison to our native deer? Of course they have to be to be sure they stay on Santa’s nice list, but George explains it’s also down to where they come from. ‘Fundamentally reindeer were split into two groups,’ he explains. ‘You would have what you would class as the European reindeer, and then you would have caribou of the American continent. When the continents separated and there was suddenly a sea in between, the reindeer that were on the American continent went truly wild. They have the characteristics similar to our native red deer; for example, if they saw you one field away they would run away. Whereas the reindeer that remained on the European side were herded and managed by the indigenous people, the Sámi people.
‘Because they have been herded and managed for thousands and thousands of years, they’re classified in Europe, northern Russia and northern China as semi-domesticated, because there’s human interaction from the day they’re born ‘til the day they die; the humans are there as their protectors and that’s how it’s always been. Whereas the people on the American continent were hunter-fishers and that’s why, over generations, caribou went truly wild. Even now, you can walk up to a herd in northern Norway, northern Sweden, northern Russia, and that herd won’t suddenly run away from you because they don’t see humans as a threat. They see them as their protectors. That’s the reason why we can do what we do with a reindeer. You could argue that it’s in their DNA, but it’s certainly in their psyche, that humans aren’t there to cause them harm, as opposed to our native deer which have been hunted for millennia.
‘They don’t even bat an eyelid on Bonfire Night when you’ve got huge fireworks going up into the sky. It doesn’t faze them one little bit which is quite amazing. They are magical.’ And mythical, some believe. George says he’s even witnessed surprised adults when they discover reindeer are in fact real.
As well as educational settings, George’s reindeer visit shopping centres, Christmas markets, Christmas light parades, they’re harnessed up to sleighs, they’re at grotto openings, and they also take part in photo sessions with photographer Nikki Paxton. ‘She has people coming from all over the country to have a session of photographs with the reindeer, and they’re just something else,’ says George. ‘When you see the reindeer interacting with three- or four-week-old babies in the middle of a forest, it’s amazing. These animals can sense things with humans on a different level.’
'It’s a fantastic situation, and never in a million years would I have thought 20 years ago that having three reindeer would lead to where I am and what I do now. It’s magical’
George is fascinated by reindeer and by the environment in the Arctic, and has befriended Sámi reindeer herders who have huge herds. ‘When we go over there, we might handle 1,000 reindeer a day,’ he says. ‘Their herds are 10- and 12,000 animals strong – it’s a different world, but they think we’re crackers because for them it’s meat.’ Sorry kids!
George explains that you should never ask a Sámi reindeer herder how many reindeer they have because it’s a bit like asking how much you’ve got in your bank account. ‘The day you’re born you’re gifted reindeer to start your herd,’ he says. ‘When you get married you’re gifted reindeer to continue with your herd. I think there’s hundreds of different words for snow in their language, because snow can be in many different formats: the dry stuff, the wet stuff, the flaky stuff, the blowy stuff, it’s a very intricate lifestyle built around the weather, the Arctic environment, and these animals. It’s a fantastic lifestyle.
‘They come over and see us too, and they love the Metrocentre, and spend a fortune because everything’s four times cheaper over here than it is in northern Norway. It’s a fantastic situation, and never in a million years would I have thought 20 years ago that having three reindeer would lead to where I am and what I do now. It’s magical.’
This Christmas, George’s reindeer will be as busy as ever. Some of the reindeer will be on display to the public in October, November and December at Richardsons Garden Centre, when it’s transformed into a Christmas wonderland. You can even adopt a reindeer, and along with a Birthday card, Christmas card and reindeer toy, you can also feed the reindeer twice a year when they’re not on public display.
‘We’ve got sleigh pulls, what we call long-term hire (so the reindeer go on their little holiday for four or five weeks to different places like Kielder Winter Wonderland, The Alnwick Garden and Lilidorei), we’ve got lots of schools booked in, Christmas markets – we are busy and it all starts in October (it seems to get earlier and earlier every year),’ George laughs.
‘It’s a busy couple of months but the rest of it is more relaxed. They literally only work on the run up to Christmas and then as soon as Christmas has happened, they’re all back home, chilling out, relaxing, having babies, raising their babies for the rest of the summer, and then Christmas arrives again… it’s not a bad life!’
Yorkshire puddings on a Christmas dinner, yes or no?
Yes! Yorkshire puddings go with everything, but particularly Christmas lunch.
What is your favourite Christmas film?
Last Christmas. I can sit and watch that all the time. For a funny one, Muppet’s Christmas Carol.
What’s your favourite Christmas song?
Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. It’s got to be!
What should children leave out for Santa’s reindeer this Christmas?
Blueberries. Carrots don’t exist in the Arctic and aren’t grown in the Arctic. Feeding them carrots is an Americanism! Basically, reindeer love ground berries or mushrooms.
How will you be celebrating Christmas this year?
It’s always with family. It’s always relaxed. Effectively all our work finishes on Christmas Eve and all the reindeer are back and ready for Santa. So Christmas Day for us is very family orientated. We go out and see the reindeer in the morning and feed them and do all the usual things, and then it’s basically relaxing, eating, sitting by the fireside with the dogs and the rest of the family, then we see all the reindeer in the evening when we need to walk off our Christmas turkey, stuffing… and Yorkshire puds!
