Wooden Reindeer

Christmas is coming—actually, Christmas is always coming. Ask any genuinely dedicated aficionado about this joyous holiday, and they’ll tell you that the next Christmas season starts on December 26^th. My wife starts Christmas shopping during the after-Christmas sales and plays Christmas music most of the year.

For those of us who make the Christmas presents we give or who like to make our own Christmas décor, getting an early start on Christmas is necessary. I remember many a year when I got too late to start, and the decorations I made had to wait for the next winter to go up. I’ve since learned to make any decorations I want in the summertime, when there’s plenty of time to get them just the way I want them, including the details of the paint.

Amongst the Nativity Scenes and Santa Clauses that everyone seems to make, wooden reindeer seem to have carved out their unique place in Christmas décor, either with Santa and his sleigh or separately. Even reindeer horns alone are used as Christmas decorations, although the whole reindeer is more common. There are several types of these, all of which are relatively easy to make. They are mostly left unpainted, except for a few accents, such as Rudolph’s nose or a colorful scarf.

Log Reindeer

Log reindeer are traditionally made from birch logs due to the unique bark of the birch tree, which is associated with Christmas. However, they can be made of any sort of log available, in pretty much any size desired. Just ensure that the log being used is from a tree where the bark will remain on the log when the log dries. With oak, for example, shrinkage of the log causes it to separate from the bark as it dries. People make log reindeer for their front yards and tiny ones to hang on the tree. If a grouping of reindeer or a reindeer family is desired, creating a more miniature log reindeer to replace a fawn is an excellent addition.

Log reindeer can be made in any size desired, although 4” to 6” diameter is the most common.  There is some need to keep the proportions within a specific range to make the reindeer look right. The diameter of the log determines this. Generally, the body and the head are cut from the same piece of log, with legs, neck, tail, and antlers cut from smaller branches. The head of the reindeer is usually 1.5 to 2 times the diameter of the log, while the reindeer’s body is 2 to 2.5 times the length of the head. Leave the bark on the log.

In addition to cutting the logs for the body and head, some additional pieces will need to be cut. Remember, in all these cases, the length of these sticks includes about 1” of material to go inside the body and head. In the case of the neck, that provides for inserting it at both ends:

• One neck, 4” to 8” long, up to ½ the diameter of the body, and no smaller in diameter than the legs
• Four legs, 3 to 4 times as long as the diameter of the body, 1” to 2” in diameter
• One tail, short, roughly 1” in diameter 
• 2 years, made by cutting a 3” to 4” section of stick the same diameter as the legs at a severe angle from one end to the opposite corner at the other end
• Two antlers, made from branch tips, cut off the ends at an angle and thinned out the smaller twigs. The antlers must be roughly the same size, even if they appear differently. 

Wherever one of the sticks is inserted into the body, the inserted end should be carved, at least enough to remove the bark (to provide a good glue surface) at the insertion depth. Ensure that the whittling doesn’t cause the stick to taper and ends up as round as possible. If desired, the tail can be sculpted to a point, removing all the bark.

Start by attaching the legs to the body. To do this, drill four holes in the bottom of the log, two at each end, directly across from each other and spaced far enough apart so that the legs will angle out about 10 to 20 degrees. These holes can be drilled with a spade or Forstner bits, whichever are available. Make the holes snug, but not so snug that the legs can’t be inserted. Glue the legs into these holes, making sure that they are snug.

Drill one hole in the center of the top, directly above one pair of legs. Glue the neck into this hole. Drill another hole in the center of the top at the other end and glue the tail into this hole. Different-sized drill bits will have to be used for the various holes.

Holes in the head for the eyes and nose. Most are left without anything in these holes, merely painting them black. However, small round ornaments can be glued into these holes to represent the eyes and nose. For Rudolph, a red ornament should be used for the nose. Then, drill holes and glue in the antlers.

It might be a good idea to give the glue time to dry before continuing, especially if the legs aren’t extremely tight. Once dried, check the reindeer’s body and legs for balance. If it wobbles excessively, cutting a little off one of the legs might be necessary. However, if there isn’t much wobble, don’t worry; the ground will probably be slightly uneven.

Glue the head onto the neck and allow the glue to dry. The log reindeer is now finished.

Wood Board Reindeer

Log reindeer are not the only type that woodworkers make for yard decorations. Reindeer are also made of wood boards, whether dimensional lumber, plywood, or reclaimed lumber. These can take on a more enormous design variety than the log ones, allowing the woodworker to express creativity.

Making this sort of reindeer starts with a pattern, usually full-sized. However, a smaller pattern can be used if a video projector is available to project the pattern onto the wood that the reindeer parts will be cut out of. I find it much easier to draw these patterns out by hand rather than to try to draw them on the computer.

This particular reindeer pattern consists of seven parts: 4 legs, the body, and two antlers. Dotted lines show where the edges of the body are. In at least the body case, several boards will have to be laminated together unless plywood is used. One alternative to typical laminating, such as making a tabletop, is to attach pieces of wood, perhaps even reclaimed wood, to a plywood base. This would only have to be done on the front side if the reindeer were placed close to the house so that only one side would be showing. Then, the outlines of the parts can be cut out of that.

Once the pieces are cut out, I recommend rounding the edges with a router bit to eliminate the risk of splinters. This can also be accomplished by sanding the parts, but doing it with a router bit is faster. Then, the parts can be attached, with one pair of legs and one antler on each side of the main body piece. The nose, eyes, antlers, and hooves can be painted to finish it off.

Remember that the grain of the wood needs to be sealed, even if the reindeer is not to be painted. This is especially true of plywood, which tends to soak up water quickly along the edges, leading to delamination. Of course, if pressure-treated boards or plywood are used, they are protected against moisture, eliminating this worry.

Other reindeer designs can be made out of plywood or boards, including those that are just silhouettes and require no more work than cutting them out and painting them. The variety of potential designs is endless, dependent solely on the artistic creativity of the person making them.

A good place to look for designs that can be enlarged to turn into patterns is coloring books. The simple drawings in childhood coloring books are readily adapted to plywood cutouts. All that’s needed is to blow them up on paper or scan them into a computer and then project them onto the plywood the design will cut out of. Projecting them also provides a straightforward way of altering the animal’s size or other design.