Magic. It wasn’t until I became a mom that I realized all of the unseen things that my mom did at Christmas to make it magical. Magically decorations would appear, Nat King Cole would start singing about chestnuts roasting, and the Christmas Elf would frequently leave treats on our doorstep following a jingling of bells. Years later I learned that my mom often would pull all nighters Christmas Eve filling the stockings and wrapping all of the gifts for the kids and bazillion grandkids. Which explains why mid-afternoon on Christmas day we would find her passed out on the floor of her room for a power nap.
Last year, after all of the gifts were opened John headed off to work and I sat on the couch exhausted.
I thought, “Wow. Christmas is a lot of work.”
Christmas is definitely a labor of love on a mother’s part. Since we aren’t by any family here in Florida, traditions don’t just happen on their own. If I have to be the one to make sure they happen…that’s fine. Sometimes it doesn’t always work out and you may hit bumps in the road like when your potty training child uses your Christmas tree box as an outhouse (don’t ask)….But it’s worth it for me so that they feel the magic. The warm cozy ambiance of music, food, and love that builds memories like the ones I have of my childhood.
Here’s something that Austin was sent home from school with last year and I thought it was the cutest idea. Since then I’ve seen it everywhere (isn’t it funny how that happens). This Magic Reindeer Food is meant to be sprinkled over the lawn on Christmas Eve for the reindeer to eat. I’m going to these with my neighbor gifts as a little something extra special to make their Christmas magic. I bought a huge tube of glitter for the mix but I found out it can really hurt birds if they eat it.
Here’s the cute label that I found online if you want to package your Magic Reindeer Food in cellophane bags like me.
Ingredients
- 1 cup oatmeal
- 1 cup white sugar
- 1/4 to 1/2 cup red and green colored decorating sugar crystals
Instructions
- Mix all together in a plastic Ziploc bag and shake well. Put in baggies or in cute cellophane treat bags. I filled 6 treat bags with about 1/2 cup of the mix. I folded them over, stapled the label on, and then trimmed off the excess bag.
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Such a cute idea♥ I wish I had reindeer in my neighborhood to feed
xoxo
Ai
super cute! I love these kind of Christmas traditions, they’re what the kids always remember.
Such a cute idea! I remember reading the story about the “deuce” as John called it! At least now you can laugh about it, right!?
Great idea! This is super cute!
I do this with my kids too…and it too, came from my mom! Moms are awesome
My daughters class did this last year too and she got such a kick out of sprinkling it on the lawn Christmas Eve. Thanks for the reminder and the adorable tags, we’ll have to make some
A package from Grandma just delivered some reindeer food here to WI. Ours also had mini marshmellows and crushed candy cane. More sugar to power those reindeer with!
A package from Grandma just delivered some reindeer food here to WI. Ours also had mini marshmellows and crushed candy cane. More sugar to power those reindeer with!
My children are in their 30s and we made this as a Grademother treat back in the day! Enjoy this with your children!
It is a lot of work but yeah, totally worth it:) LOve the magic reindeer food-cute idea:)
So cute! My parents would always have us leave out carrots for the reindeer – and every Christmas morning we’d wake up to the carrot stumps on the plate. It was so fun for us thinking we not only gave Santa his milk and cookies, but gave the reindeer some food for the trip, too!
Don’t give up on the glitter. You can buy edible glitter in the cake decorating aisle of Walmart or Michaels.
I love these. They are great for the kids around the holidays. Thanks.
Just found your blog and I love it! I’m having fun going through your recipes and finding some things to try. Just wanted to say – we did this with our kids when they were little and it was always a lot of fun! Be prepared though! The first year we did it the kids wanted to know why there wasn’t any reindeer paw prints in the snow! I had to think fast and told them that since they are flying reindeer they just sort of hovered over the ground and ate their treat. LOL They bought it but whew!
We did this when I was teaching Kindergarten but the poem was like this, “Sprinkle on the lawn at night, the moon will make it sparkle bright. Santa’s reindeer fly and roam, this will guide them to your home.” And we put sparkles in it. I also made sure to tell the kids what each ingredient did for the reindeer. Like the oats made them strong, brown sugar made their fur thick and warm, and the red sparkles made Rudolphs nose shine bright! Fun idea.
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