Guide

How to Make Reindeer Food: A Wildlife-Safe Recipe (With a Poem)

Published 5 November 2026.

Sprinkling reindeer food on the lawn is one of the sweetest Christmas Eve jobs a little one can have. It takes five minutes, costs almost nothing, and gives an excited child something useful to do with all that energy before bed. The only catch is that the reindeer aren't the ones who actually eat it. Birds, hedgehogs, foxes and the neighbour's dog get there first. So the best reindeer food is food that's safe for the real visitors too.

Here's a simple recipe, what to leave out and why, a short poem for the bag, and a few ways to make the moment feel properly magical.

The basic wildlife-safe recipe

This makes enough for two or three small bags.

• 4 tablespoons of rolled porridge oats (plain, not instant flavoured sachets)
• 1 tablespoon of bird seed or sunflower hearts
• A pinch of dried mealworms (optional, robins love them)
• 1 teaspoon of grated or finely chopped carrot, or a little dried carrot if you're making it ahead

Mix it all in a bowl and let your child stir. That's it. Oats are the "magic" base in almost every family's recipe, and plain oats and seed are things birds already eat from garden feeders.

Making it look magical without glitter

Children love sparkle, and that's where most reindeer food goes wrong. Plastic glitter never breaks down, and "eco" glitters are not made to be scattered across gardens where animals forage. Leave glitter out completely. Instead, try:

• A spoonful of freeze-dried strawberry or beetroot powder, stirred in for a pink tint.
• Golden flecks from cornmeal or polenta, which catch the light a little.
• A sparkly bag instead of sparkly food. Put the magic on the outside: a glittery ribbon, a gold sticker or a star-shaped tag.

You can also tell children the magic is invisible: "The moonlight makes it glow, but only reindeer can see it." Most four-year-olds accept that instantly.

What to leave out (and why)

If you have a dog that goes in the garden, keep the mixture very plain, or sprinkle it on a doorstep or windowsill instead of the lawn.

A short reindeer food poem

Many families tie a little poem to the bag. Here's one you can copy onto a tag:

Sprinkle on the garden, sprinkle on the lawn,

The moon will make it sparkle until Christmas dawn.

When Rudolph smells the oats and sees the silver light,

He'll guide the sleigh to land here on Christmas Eve tonight.

Or a shorter version for very little ones:

Oats for the reindeer, a carrot for the road,

Now land here, Santa, and drop off your load!

Older children often like writing their own. Give them the first line, "Sprinkle it here so the reindeer know...", and let them finish it.

Bags, jars and labels

You don't need anything fancy. A few easy containers:

• Paper sweet bags or small brown paper bags, folded over and closed with a peg or washi tape.
• A clean jam jar with a ribbon, if you'd rather sprinkle from a spoon.
• A cone made from a square of greaseproof paper, which little hands find easy to pour from.

For the label, a child-drawn reindeer face with the poem on the back is perfect. If you're making bags for a nursery class or a Christmas fair, stick to paper so nothing ends up in the bin as plastic.

How to make the sprinkling special

The food is the easy part. What children remember is the little ceremony.

1. Pick the moment. Just after tea, while it's dark but before bath time, works well for most families.
2. Put on coats and wellies. Going outside in pyjamas and a coat feels like an adventure.
3. Take a torch. Let your child be in charge of lighting the way.
4. Say the poem together, then sprinkle in a wide arc so it's easy to "see" from the sky.
5. Look up. Point out a bright star or a plane's light and wonder aloud if it might be the sleigh.
6. Come in and check the tracker. Many families follow the sleigh on a Santa tracker straight after, so the story carries on indoors.

No garden? Sprinkle a small amount on a balcony, front step or windowsill. Santa's reindeer are famously good at finding flats.

The morning after

On Christmas morning, most of the oats will be gone (birds are early risers). If any are left, sweep most of it away and leave a few scattered crumbs. A half-eaten carrot by the door adds to it. For more ideas like this, see our guide to proof that Santa came.

Looking after a reindeer all year round

Some children get so attached to the reindeer that they want to know what happens to them after Christmas. That's a lovely thing to lean into: talk about how reindeer need food, rest and brushing every day, not just on 24 December.

If your child enjoys that kind of caring play, My Reindeer on Santa Playtime is a gentle pet game where they adopt a baby reindeer in Santa's stables. They feed, brush, bath and play with it using big buttons, and the reindeer grows a little each day they come back, until it's big enough to fly with Santa on Christmas Eve. There's no reading needed, so it suits children from about three. It's part of our free three-day trial, with no sign-up or card, alongside a couple of other games. See what's in it on our free Christmas games page.

It pairs nicely with the real thing: feed the pretend reindeer in December, then sprinkle real (wildlife-safe) food for Santa's team on Christmas Eve.

Reindeer food as a gift

Bags of home-made reindeer food make a cheap, cheerful present for classmates, cousins or a Christmas Eve box. Make one big batch, divide it into paper bags, add the poem and a hand-drawn tag, and you're done. If you're putting together a box for Christmas Eve night, our Christmas Eve box ideas guide has plenty more to go with it.