The Anderson family dared to dream with visions of reindeer prancing in their heads. Now, their Kentucky reindeer farm is filled with Christmas wonder.
Story by Cara Clark
“... And then, in a twinkling,
I heard on the roof
The prancing and pawing
of each little hoof ...”
The lines from a 200-year-old poem, “A Visit from Saint Nicholas,” echo through the imaginations of children, who dream of magical reindeer transporting Santa from home to home on Christmas Eve. While there’s prancing and pawing aplenty on The Reindeer Farm in Bowling Green, Kentucky, the hooves aren’t so little in person as visitors to the Christmas-centric property discover with glee. They’re large, flat, and have two toes.
Russell and Jessica Anderson’s love of the festive season and a dream of living the good life manifested a place that’s magic, especially during the holiday season. As the only reindeer farm in Kentucky, it attracts families to meet the animals up close and participate in activities to celebrate the season.
Behind the scenes, it takes a day-and-night commitment to keep the creatures happy, healthy, and hardy.
“They’re incredibly difficult animals to raise, and it is a lifestyle choice,” Jessica says. “It’s very hard for us to get away from the farm. If we’re going to slip away for a while, we spend even more time with them to make sure we’re not missing anything before we leave. We’ve got cameras all over the property, and I can’t even go to the grocery store without checking the cameras. It’s truly a devotion to them. Reindeer are magical; we know we are incredibly blessed to raise them. It’s like raising kids.”
VISIONS OF SUGARPLUMS
The farm began with a dream. Russell was in his tenth year at the same job, and the couple was expecting their third child in just over three years. With the demands of babies, Russell was considering a new job to enable him to help with the children more. One night, he called to check in while on a work break.
“He talked about how he wished we could do something together as a family — something fun and unique — to make memories,” Jessica says. “He was working a lot and felt like he was missing things while I was caring for the babies alone. He asked if there was something I would want to do.”
Jessica’s response: “I love Christmas, and I always wanted to be a farmer. It was really like a God thing, an epiphany,”
Jessica says. “I said, ‘Why don’t we get reindeer?’ It came out of nowhere. He’s a very good husband and a supportive spouse, and he laughed about it and was like, ‘Well, I don’t think that’s even legal, and we live in Kentucky.’”
After staying up all night holding her infant in the nursery, Jessica greeted her husband’s arrival home from the late shift with a proposal.
“As soon as he walked in the door, I said, ‘I think it’s going to be really hard. I don’t know exactly how you make it happen or what you do, but I think we can do it,’” she says.
Jessica set about turning thought to action, making phone calls, researching reindeer care, and visiting a reindeer farmer nine hours away.
“As soon as my husband touched one, his eyes lit up, just like a child, and he looked at me and said, ‘We’ve got to figure this out.’ And so out of a dream in the nursery, that’s where we started,” she explains.
The two Kentucky natives had a difficult time breaking into the realm of reindeer ownership, but a Northern breeder was willing to help, mentoring them for four years while they worked with the state of Kentucky to get approval. It took those four years to convince state regulators that reindeer would thrive in Warren County.
By Christmas 2020, the farm was open for visitors with two reindeer and heaps of holiday spirit. The farm has ten reindeer this Yuletide season, including Mistletoe, a massive three-year-old female. When the reindeer’s antlers are new, they’re covered in velvet, lending a mystical look to their countenance that soon transforms into a powerful presence as they shed the covering and harden into spiky crowns, which will drop away in time.
“Male reindeer will drop their antlers between November and February, and each deer always follows the same pattern,” Jessica explains. “If you have a male that drops in December every year, he will do that his whole life. Females have longer antler retention, and that is for reasons of hierarchy. Somebody’s got to be the boss. At the end of gestation, before babies are born, they have antlers, and the males don’t, meaning they are above the males in the pecking order at that time.”
Jessica says reindeer are docile but curious creatures, making keeping a distance challenging.
“We post a lot of photos on social media that are close to their noses and their face,” she says. “It’s because they want to see what we’re doing. They have unique personalities. We have some reindeer that like small groups. We have some reindeer that love the big groups — the more, the merrier. We have some that want to be petted and others that don’t want that, but you can stand next to them and take photos with them all day. We spend so much time with them that we know exactly what to expect from each one.”
Knowing how the deer normally behave is essential because they’re stoic and mask illness. Watching for subtle clues helps keep them healthy, identifying when one isn’t feeling well despite behaving normally for the most part. That’s also what makes the farm a 24/7 commitment.
The Andersons are raising their children to have an appreciation of animals and nature and the hard work and rewards that come with farming. With miniature cows, a lpacas, bunnies, Kunekune pigs, donkeys, chickens, and more, working a farm is demanding, but a labor of unceasing love.
“After we bought a little land and built the house and barn and got the deer, I just felt this is where God intended for me to be,” Jessica says. “He put me exactly where I’m supposed to be.”
The children also bond with the reindeer, and Jessica says each has a favorite — more because the reindeer chose the child than the child picked a deer.
Their 12-year-old daughter, Anna, is on a fast track to farm management. She comes up with ideas of what she will do with the farm as an adult and offers suggestions and recommendations to her parents. Daughter Ashton, 10, is a blackbelt in karate, and son Russell, 9, says he’s the food truck manager and hot chocolate maker extraordinaire.
“I’m so thankful. I’m thankful for our farm, our way of life, and how close-knit we are,” Jessica says. “We’re giving them a life that my husband and I didn’t have, and that with this life, hopefully generationally, it’s going to change everyone’s life moving forward. It’s great for them to know they will inherit this farm.”
SEASONAL SPLENDOR
A festive farm tour includes hot chocolate by the fire, wine from one of 11 nearby wineries, letters to Santa, holiday movies, and a bounce house. Santa and Mrs. Claus visit with children, and a celebrated Pennsylvania ice carver, Danny Kissel, crafts fantastic sculptures. As the magic of the holidays and the real-life reindeer imbue the season with a sense of wonder, it’s natural to return to the timeless poem about a visit from St. Nick and easy to envision the magic of his Christmas Eve cross-continental journeys.
“... He sprang to his sleigh,
to his team gave a whistle,
And away they all flew like
the down of a thistle ...”
