While most of us will be taking the opportunity to put our feet up and relax this Christmas, the UK’s only reindeer herd gets ready to go to work, and will be appearing in pageants and parades across the country.
The animals were fist brought over from Sweden in 1952 by a Sami tribesman named Mikel Utsi, and have lived in the Cairngorm Reindeer Centre in Glenmore, Scotland, for the past 60 years.
Visitors to the centre are set to soar, as they do each year around this time, while general manager Tilly Smith prepares to take her herd around Britain for a series of festive events.
And animal lovers will be pleased to know that the reindeer have not been excluded from the wonderful events we’ve all enjoyed in 2012, and have joined in the Olympic and jubilee celebrations with a number of new additions to the herd being given topical names such as Bolt, Ennis and Flotilla.
