Does Santa come with flying reindeer
to deliver presents at Christmas?    
 

Scientist tell us
no known species of reindeer can fly.
BUT there are 300,000 species
of living organisms yet to
be classified,
and while most of these are
insects and germs,
this does not COMPLETELY
rule out flying reindeer.
However,
those of us with Christmas
in our heart know
for a fact that
flying reindeer do exist.
We even know their names;
Dasher, Dancer, Prancer,
Vixen, Donder
( or Donner
he is known by both names
since some of the small reindeer
have trouble saying 'Donder'),
Blitzen, Comet, Cupid
and of course --
Rudolph.
Rudolph with his shiny red nose
is probably the most famous.
He is really helpful to Santa
on foggy nights.
Blixen is the fastest
of the reindeer.
Dancer likes to do just that, dance.
Cupid is the jokester of the bunch.
All of them are good fliers ,
of course, and magical creatures.

How does Santa's sleigh
make it around the world
in just one day?
Santa and the reindeer
have had lots of practice and
make wise use of time zones
this and a little magic and they
always make in on time.
Santa Claus hasn't missed a year yet,
though he has had some close calls.

Reindeer
( ordinary ones and the flying ones )
are sturdy,
short-legged animals,
with a brownish coat ; the long hairs
under the neck,
the fur just above the hoofs, and the
  region about the tail are almost white.
The stag measures about
6 ft. in length
and is about 36 inches tall,
measured at the shoulder;
the doe is somewhat smaller.
  The animals have large,
spreading hoofs that enable them
to travel on snow-covered areas.
For many centuries reindeer have been
domesticated in their original habitat,
which ranges from
Norway into northern Asia.
They have been trained to wear
harnesses because of their strength,
speed, and endurance
in pulling sleds over snow.
They feed on vegetation such as
grasses, leaves, mosses, and lichens.
 The flying ones are given
magical oats and corn by Santa
and the elves
which make them able to fly.
They like carrots, lettuce and cookies
( especially those made by children ).
There are lots of reindeer
that live in the North Pole--
too many for even Santa to count. 

Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer
  is the only new addition
to the folklore of Santa  Claus
in the twentieth century.
  

In 1939, Robert May,
an advertising copywriter for the
Montgomery Ward department store
in Chicago,
sought something novel
for its Santa Claus to
distribute to parents and children.
  He came up with the idea of a shiny-nosed reindeer,
a Santa's helper. 
An artist friend, Denver Gillen,
spent hours at a local zoo
creating whimsical sketches
of reindeer at rest and at play.
May considered many names
and finally settled  on Rudolph,
the preference of his
four-year-old daughter.
That Christmas of 1939,
2.4 million copies of the
Rudolph booklet
were handed  out in
Montgomery Ward stores
across the country. 
 

Rudolph
was reprinted as a Christmas booklet
sporadically until 1947.
That year,
a friend of May's,
Johnny Marks,
decided to put the poem
  to music.
  One professional singer
after another declined the
opportunity to record the song,
but in 1949, Gene Autry consented.
The Autry recording
rocketed to the top of the Hit Parade.
Since then,
three hundred different recordings
have been made,
and more than eighty million records sold.
The original Gene Autry version
is second only to
Bing Crosby's, White Christmas,
as the best-selling record of all time.
  

Rudolph became an
annual television star,
and a familiar Christmas image
in many of the countries
whose own lore had enriched
the international St. Nicholas legend.