Magical Reindeer Food Really Does Exist!

Down the street from our house lives Mr. Tinker. He is an older man and he has trouble getting around. Trenton and Doyle my sons help him with small jobs around his house. Just little tasks, like taking the trash to the road or raking up fall leaves. They have formed a good friendship with each other. In fact, Mr. Tinker often invites the boys to come over to sit on his porch just to talk.

While we were writing our Christmas letters the boys told me that they were worried about how Mr. Tinker would be spending his Christmas. He had no family that either of them had ever heard of or seen. The boys decided that they would ask Santa to bring something special for Mr. Tinker that year.

Doyle and Trenton couldn’t wait to mail a letter to Santa. They just knew for sure that Santa would bring something to make Mr. Tinker’s Christmas a little brighter. I was glad to see the boys showing so much compassion for Mr. Tinker. It was good for him to have them stop by and give him company.

I told the boys that I would take them shopping to buy a gift for Mr. Tinker. Trenton picked out a thick flannel coat. He chose blue because Mr. Tinker had once told him it was his favorite color. Doyle wanted to buy a pair of warm house shoes and gloves. He said Mr. Tinker always complained of having cold hands and feet.

That week a snow storm blew in over a foot of snow. We walked down to see if Mr. Tinker needed us to get him anything while we were out in the truck. He handed me a list and the money, he told me to keep the change for my trouble. Mr. tinker than turned to the boys and told them to close their eyes and hold out their hands.

In each of their hands he placed a small cloth bag. When they opened their eyes they didn’t know what to think. Mr. Tinker grinned and explained that inside the bags was magical reindeer food for them to leave out Christmas Eve. They showed off their gifts to their dad that night at dinner.

On Christmas Eve the boys went out in the backyard to put out the reindeer food. I gave them a big plastic green bowl with pictures of snowmen on it to put the food in. They took their time trying to decide what would be the best place to leave food for Santa’s pets. On Christmas morning they couldn’t wait to see if the reindeer ate any of the food that Mr. Tinker had given them. To their surprise the bowl was completely empty and there were deer tracks in the snow across the yard.