Roaming Reindeer – A Christmas Tradition With Heart

Just before we left for vacation a few weeks ago a big brown box appeared at our door. I brought it in with the kids, opened it up, and we sat down to read the story of Gus and Sam. Roaming Reindeer is a new Christmas activity (story with stuffed animals) that was written by Angela Meju. In a few short pages my kids were hooked, caught up in these two reindeers sent as toys by Santa’s magic to watch over the house and help him with his naughty and nice list. Oliver and Anna kept looking over at those two little reindeer, thinking of the box that just appeared out of no where, and taking in the message of the story.

The story is what makes this set for me. Gus and Sam team up to help Santa with his naughty and nice list. There are just so many kids in the world now, and Santa is struggling to keep up with all they do. Gus and Sam head off to some houses to watch the kids inside. Soon they realize that there are even more kids than they can handle, and pair off other reindeer, now known as reindeer 1 and reindeer 2.

Reindeer 1 though, she gets really upset when she sees anything disappointing, and she’ll disappear, back to Santa, to tell him what’s going on. Reindeer 2 stays though, keeping watch, in hope that the children turn themselves around and start behaving nicely again. If that happens, he sends word to Reindeer 1, who will then come back to the house.

This is why I love this story set so much. It reinforces how important good behavior is, and it helps keep the kids on track when holiday excitement has them bouncing off the walls. I can’t be the only house that is already seeing a change in their kids, and not for the better. I love that there is redemption, that Reindeer 1 will come back and get your kids back onto the nice list. I love that Reindeer 2 will stand watch, through good and bad. The Author also had a great idea to help promote continued good behavior – If Reindeer 1 and 2 stay together for 5 days in a row, the kids get a reward of some kind. In my house, it’s going to be a hot chocolate before bed, because for some reason my two think hot chocolate is worth its weight in gold.

We packed them back up before we went away, with the promise to take them back out when we got home, to let them keep watch. I did that yesterday morning. We read the story again before Oliver headed off to school, and then I tried to take a couple of good pictures of the set, but Anna wasn’t having it. She loves Reindeer 1 and Reindeer 2, and snatched them away to play with Sophie.

A few hours later, while Anna was eating lunch, and I was tidying up, she snuck off to get the story book, and flipped through the pages again while she ate. It’s clearly struck a cord with her, and any book that connects with my kids, I love.

[box type=”shadow” align=”aligncenter” ]Now for the best part! Angela Meju and her publisher are letting me give away a copy of Roaming Reindeer with Reindeer 1 & Reindeer 2!

You’ve got to live within the United States or Canada, and enter below. There are some that you can do only once, but you can leave a comment or tweet out a message every day until it ends for additional entries!

The contest is live through November 27, 2014, and I’ll contact and post the winner on the 28th, so that you can get the set in time to start a new tradition with your family![/box]

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Roaming Reindeer is available through Amazon.com for US residents, and at RoamingReindeer.com for those in the US and Canada.

[box type=”shadow” align=”aligncenter” ]As another bonus, enter code: ROAM2014 to get $5 off the purchase price of $34.95 when ordering via RoamingReindeer.com through November 27, 2014.[/box]

Merry Christmas!