Until last weekend!

And I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw two real-life reindeer for the first time in my life (which consists of many years experience). It was possibly the happiest Christmas moment I’ve ever had. As I stroked the reindeer’s forehead I realised that this was the pet I needed in my life and have vowed to look after a herd of reindeer when I grow up. This was at the Stowmarket Christmas lights switch-on event and I’ll never forget my first encounter with these beautiful creatures.

As life so often reminds us, things you’ve waited ages for always come in threes and on the same weekend I saw another pair of reindeer at Bury St Edmunds Christmas market (which, by the way, was immense and I thoroughly recommend it to visitors, one of the biggest and best Christmas markets I’ve been to).

After this occasion, I didn’t think I’d see any more reindeer this year, but of course I was wrong. After all these decades of never seeing a reindeer, I saw another pair at Redhouse Barn and got up close to one of the deer, who obviously thought I was Santa and gave my familiar red coat a nibble & dribbled all over it!

   

So I will have a very merry Christmas knowing that reindeer ARE real!