Reindeer Poop Cookies

My favorite part of making Christmas goodies is to plop the reindeer poops right next to the gingerbread cookies. My Dad and I love to make them together. He will always pull the recipe out of an old cookie tin to make for Santa. Here is the recipe for these oatmeal drop cookies that are no bake and just dry on wax paper:

½ Cup of butter

1 ½ cups white sugar

½ cup of brown sugar

½ cup of milk

3 tablespoons of cocoa

½ cup of coconut

1 teaspoon of vanilla

3 cups of dry quick oats

The reindeer poops are an ongoing joke between my dad and me. We even had a little reindeer candy dispenser that would poop out chocolate covered raisins. When I was a kid, I thought the reindeer really did poop out chocolate, which is how to be able to tell that they were a reindeer besides them being able to fly. When I would leave them out for Santa he would write me a note back that would say they were almost as good as what his reindeer made, but not quite. This will always be funny to me about reindeer waste being something edible to humans because where else does Santa get all his cookies from when children aren’t getting any for him? He has to have a supply, right?

Going outside to scatter the oats for the reindeer to eat, I would laugh knowing it would end up in their poop later into the cookie formation. Santa would be getting his energy from these cookies to be able to make toys with elves all year. I remember going to a place called “Santa’s Village” when I was younger and they had reindeer there for the children to look at. I would know they weren’t real reindeer because they had regular poop. They would have to have the magic and chocolate in order to be real. I want to keep this story going if I ever have a family. The joy and silliness that comes from children getting excited about the reindeer poop is magical and exciting.

I also believe it is hilarious because I know some people would not like the jokes about the cookies being what they are. It is like saying that someone’s spaghetti is worms, and then parents getting upset their kid had such a horrid imagination. I never understood those people who would complain about telling their kids funny little silly stories or fairy tales. I remember I wrote a story at one time about a girl who got lost and a reindeer found her. She was so starved that she ate their poop while flying back home on its back to be with her parents again. I loved writing funny little stories like this based off something my parents had told me or that I had heard.

When I was in the writer’s club at my high school, us writers all came together to create a children’s book for the local school. I picked to write about a pony who wanted to be a unicorn because of remembering silly times with my family about putting ice cream cones on our heads and saying that we were now unicorns. I thought that a pony could easily disguise themselves in with unicorns if they got someone to put an ice cream cone on their head, unless there is something else that sets them apart like a regular deer to a rein deer. Possibly a unicorn pooped out rainbow sherbet, while the pony had regular poops, so that is how they would filter out the imposter. I always loved how children’s stories could be super silly, lighthearted, and entertaining in that way. The holiday season will always remind me of funny stories and thoughts I had at childhood, which is all in the cheer and joy that it brings.