Sullivan Robert - Flight of the Reindeer: The True Story of Santa Claus and His Christmas Mission

Work That Never Ends

D ASHER, Dancer, Prancer and Vixen are not immortal. Comet, Cupid, the now-healed Donder and Blitzen are special but aging deer. Rudolph too. Hes a real Peary, with the aches and pains of a real Peary. You should see him each December 26thhe is one sore animal.

They are getting older, yes, but these special reindeer of the North Pole count time in a different way than we do. Consider: The Big Eight of Santas squad have been a team for 2,000 yearswith Rudolph, theyve been a team for 1,500but it is clear, from the testimony of Steger and others, that they will remain a team throughout your lifetime, your childrens lifetimes and all the lifetimes of your childrens childrens grandchildren. For a thousand more tripsand more than thatSanta Claus will drive the same famous group of reindeer. He told me so, says Will Steger. And I believe everything that he told me, without question.

Think back, with Stegers testimony in mind, to where our search began. Do you remember the vision that the ancient Inuit of Kuujjuaq saw outlined against the moon, the one captured in leather with a hunting knife? That is exactly the same vision you can spy out your midnight window, if you are very, very luckyand the reindeer are in glide, traveling very, very slowly. You and your descendants and theirs and theirs. What a thought that is! What an opportunity each of us has.

He did say, Steger adds, that thousands of years in the future, hell have to replace his legendary deer. One by one, theyll be too old. At that point, some phenomenal flier from the training group will be given the nod, and will be hitched to the Christmas sleigh. I wouldnt want to be one of those youngsters, not on the maiden voyage. What pressure! Can you imagine being the one who replaces Dasher? Dancer?

When the day finally does come, the famous old deer who have performed so nobly will undoubtedly enjoy a serene retirement. They will silently impart advice to the new kids on the team, then just lie around the stable. Theyll spend their golden years remembering all those bygone Christmas Eves, all the adventures, all the places, all the glories. The fur near their antlers will slowly go gray. Theyll watch The Christmas Mission lifting off, and tears will roll softly down toward their noses.

But not yet, and not soon. The same Santa Claus express that our world has come to love will be on the job for a long time yet. The teams members have, as we have seen, learned to cope with our modern times. They have taken on the heavier and heavier burden of serving an ever more populous planet. They havealways, every yearserved as perfectly and generously as they have served quietly and modestly. These small, strong, silent deer: They are the best this earth can offer.

The End

Credits

MANY THANKS are extended to the following contributors of artifacts and photography, listed by page. Pages 13, 14, 16, 40, 41 (2), 42, 44, 63, 67: The Stefansson Collection at Baker Library/Dartmouth College; 20, 26, 29, 73: Joe Mehling; 25: Leif Ericsson courtesy of Richard D. Bond, Columbus Discovers America courtesy of the U.S. Naval Academy Museum; 28: courtesy of Carlton Plummer; 30: courtesy of F. Forrester Church; 31: St. Nicholas of Bari, 1472 by Carlo Crivelli The Cleveland Museum of Art, gift of the Hanna Fund; 33: Another Stocking to Fill and Santa Clauss Mail by Thomas Nast, the Irving portrait from The Bettmann Archive; 34: courtesy of Regina Barreca; 35: William H. Johnson; 38: Per Breiehagan; 39, 46, 47, 55, back cover: Will Steger/Black Star; 48: Tony Stone Images; 52: courtesy of Jeff Blumenfeld; 58: Dana Smith; 60: courtesy of Bil Gilbert; 64: Jim Brandenburg/Minden Pictures; 68, back cover: Andrew Cornaga/Photosport, New Zealand; 69: The Royal Geographical Society, London (2); 71: Ned Gillete Photography (2); 72: Kathy Rae Chapman; 80: courtesy Weather Services Corporation; 81: Tony Stone Images; 82: Rankin-Bass Productions; 84, back cover: courtesy of NBC-TV Network; 86: courtesy of Melissa Franklin; 90, back cover: Michael Moore.

PART ONE

The Echo of Hooves

Searching for Yesteryears Deer

H OW OLD IS the jolly old man? Unless he chooses to tell us-and it is exceedingly unlikely that he will, for he is a lovely but reticent manwe will never know. That is to say, well never know how old he is in the way that we count the years. Surely he is immortal in a spiritual sense.

A ND SURELY HE IS LONG-LIVED in any sense because we do know that he has been on the job for nearly two thousand years. There are records of children in northern Africa getting mysterious presents as long ago as that. There are stories of strange midwinter visitations made to Native Americans that long ago. There are aboriginal traditions in Australia that speak of a flying man from the north. There are reports of a curious Arctic city of elves that date that far back. There is even firm support for the claim of those Inuit of Kuujjuaq: Yes, indeed, Santa Claus did pass through their land a thousand years ago. He and his community settled for a short while just to the east, and thenexactly as the Inuit saidthey uprooted themselves and went north.