Here are fourteen reindeer stories to share with your preschooler this Christmas season. The stories are funny, sweet, and teach us about reindeers! Check out my list of ELF stories and SANTA books too 🙂
14 Reindeer Stories:
1. Olive, the Other Reindeer by Vivian Walsh–
This is my son’s favorite reindeer story! I can’t even keep track of how many times we have read this book! This is a really cute story about a dog named Olive who hears the Christmas song saying, “All of the other reindeer,” and mistakenly thinks the song is about her. It’s almost Christmas so Olive heads out to the North Pole to report for reindeer duty! Turns out a little dog is just what Santa needed this year. Check this one out from your library and learn how Olive helps save the day!
2. The Littlest Reindeer by Brandi Dougherty–
Why we like it — it’s a sweet story and shows that everyone can contribute, no matter how small! Dot the reindeer, the smallest reindeer in the North Pole, wants to learn how to fly. Unfortunately her little legs just couldn’t take off. Feeling sad that she’s too little to fly Santa’s sleigh, Dot finds a present that dropped out of Santa’s sack. She tries as hard as she can to take flight and begins to fly! Dot reached Santa and landed in his sleigh, returning the present! Check out the companion book: The Littlest Elf.
3. How to Catch a Reindeer by Alice Walstead–
This rhyming story is told by Comet from Santa’s team. Santa’s reindeer have a rough job of avoiding all of the traps set by the kids on Christmas Eve. Dodging flying ornaments, avoiding fake Santas, and various other traps, Comet has so much fun grooving and dancing through the neighborhood. Time is up and there are more homes to visit so Comet and the rest of the reindeer say goodbye to kids and wish them a Merry Christmas. A few reindeer facts are included at the end of the story!
4. The Wild Christmas Reindeer by Jan Brett —
Ever wonder who trains the reindeer for Santa? Well it’s Teeka’s job! Read along as Teeka tries to get the energetic reindeer to follow her directions. Teeka didn’t realize that they reindeer had their own likes and dislikes and she didn’t take their feelings into consideration. This lead to a lot of problems for Teeka as the reindeer were upset, they crashed into each, strained their muscles, and just didn’t fly like a Christmas team. Teeka learned that yelling and demanding wasn’t helping. She needed to be kind and considerate of the reindeers’ feelings and lend a helping hand. Teeka’s change in attitude improved the reindeers’ training and soon everyone was ready to fly Santa’s sleigh.
5. Reindeer Helper (Uni the Unicorn) by Amy Krouse Rosenthal–
When one of Santa’s reindeer gets lost, it is up to Uni the Unicorn to find it and help it get back to Santa! Combing unicorn and reindeer magic, Uni and the reindeer work together to catch up to Santa’s sleigh. With the sleigh missing a reindeer, it was off balance and Santa was losing presents. Good thing Uni is here! Uni and the reindeer deliver the missing presents and the lost reindeer is reunited with Santa!
6. Never Let a Unicorn Meet a Reindeer by Diane Alber–
My 5 year old loves this book! It has humor, sparkly magic, and Christmas, so what’s not to love! The little girl in the story gets a reindeer for her birthday, but the new reindeer and her pet unicorn aren’t getting along. Each tries to outdo the other! In the end, they put aside their feud to help Santa deliver presents 🙂
7. I’m a Reindeer by Mallory Loehr–
This book provides reindeer facts for your readers. Did you know that reindeer are already up and running when they are only 2 hours old?!? With cute pictures of reindeer, this book is anything but boring. Read this one with preschoolers who want to learn more about reindeers.
8. Tiny Reindeer by Chris Naylor-Ballesteros–
In this sweet Christmas story, an extremely small reindeer name Tiny is feeling sad because he is too small to help pull Santa’s sleigh. Meanwhile there is a sad little girl wishing for a small reindeer to pull the little wooden sleigh her grandfather made her. Here’s a chance for Tiny to make a big difference in someone’s life by helping the little girl! I love the moral of the story that there is always a way to help others despite our own limitations. Preschoolers will enjoy the artwork and laugh at the pictures of this super small reindeer trying to do ordinary things like eat out of an average-sized food dish.
9. Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer by Rick Bunsen–
No reindeer list would be complete without Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer! In this story (based on the movie), Rudolph is excluded from the other reindeer because his glowing red nose makes him different. What these other reindeer learn to understand is that our differences are actually assets, not hindrances. Rudolph and his nose save the day when a dense fog rolls in and none of the other reindeer can see where they are flying.
10. Reindeers are Better than People (Disney’s Frozen) by Disney Books–
This short and sweet, rhyming board book is an ode to Sven, Kristoff’s best friend from the movie Frozen. Each page features a different character from the movie and highlights something great about them, but concludes that Sven is the best. The board book has fuzzy antlers that stick off the top, so as you turn the page, it looks like each person (or snowperson) has antlers! The book is adorable and perfect for little Frozen fans
11. The Little Reindeer by Nicola Killen—
Little Ollie, dressed in her reindeer pajamas, awakens to jingling bells outside her window. She heads outside into the snow to follow the sound, where she finds a real reindeer looking for it’s missing jingle bell collar. Ollie finds the collar abs then she and the reindeer soar up into the sky and back to Ollie’s house. Little Ollie goes back to bed while the reindeer returns to Santa’s sleigh. The lovely pictures of Ollie and the reindeer are soothing and perfect for bedtime read-alouds.
12. Never Ever Race a Reindeer by Adam Wallace & Mary Nhin–
Read this rhyming story to learn why you shouldn’t race a reindeer. In addition to being very competitive, reindeer will do anything to win, even cheating! I love the moral that cheaters never prosper as the reindeer ultimately end up losing the race to the children. Check your library for this story so you and your child can giggle together over the reindeers’ antics!
13. Reindeer in Here by Adam Reed–
This is an adorable rhyming story about a little reindeer with mismatched antlers. The little reindeer shows up as an early Christmas gift from Santa to encourage children to celebrate their own differences like just like the litter reindeer and its friends! While telling the story of Santa’s early Christmas days, little reindeer lets us in on a secret, Santa sends helpers (like the reindeer) to learn children’s real Christmas wishes and report back. The book and the plush toy come together so your little one can also have an early gift from Santa!
14. Santa’s Story by Will Hillenbrand–
My son gives this book 2 thumbs up! He loves the pictures and liked that each reindeer got its own page that told about them. Not only did we learn something unique about each reindeer, but we learned the reindeers’ Christmas Eve tradition of gathering together to hear Santa read The Night Before Christmas.
Thank you for checking out my list of reindeer stories for preschoolers! I hope you enjoy these books! I joined Amazon’s Affiliate program to try and help cover the costs of this site. If you buy something through one of my links on Amazon, then I get a small percentage of the sale (no extra cost to you). Thank you for your support! Happy reading 🙂
Reindeer Crafts
Paper Chain Reindeer: glue construction paper strips together to form a chain and add a cute reindeer face to the top chain.
Candy Cane Reindeer:Â make a cute and yummy candy reindeer by adding pipe cleaner antlers, googly eyes, and a pompom nose!
