Reindeer prompts by age
“Use this prompt” fills in the generator and sets the detail level. Every page is drawn fresh, so if one misses, change one detail and try again.
| For | Prompt | Action |
|---|---|---|
| Ages 2 to 5Simple | a cute reindeer standing, with big branching antlers, a round nose and a bell on its collar, big simple shapes, no background One animal in a plain stance. The antlers are the only complicated part, and they stay large. |
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| Ages 3 to 6Simple | a reindeer face with big antlers and a striped scarf, big simple shapes, no background A face and a scarf: the scarf stripes give a young child something to choose colors for. |
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| Ages 6 to 9Medium | a mother reindeer and her calf walking through snow between pine trees, clean bold outlines Two animals of different sizes, and a calf's antlers are small, so there are fewer branches to draw. |
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| Ages 9 to 12Medium | two reindeer pulling a sleigh full of presents over snowy rooftops, moon and stars drawn as outlines The classic scene. Outlined stars keep the sky white. |
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| Teens and adultsDetailed | a reindeer with antlers made of swirling patterns, snowflakes and stars filling the space around it Pattern in the antlers is the point of the page, and the snowflakes give a long, repeating background. |
Which reindeer have antlers in December
Cows keep their antlers longer than the biggest bulls do, which matters for a Christmas picture. According to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, the largest bulls shed their antlers in late October. Small bulls and cows that are not pregnant shed theirs in April, and pregnant cows usually keep theirs until their calves are born in late May.
So a reindeer wearing antlers in December is, in real life, most likely a cow or a small bull. Alaska's own page on Santa's reindeer says it is not known when or if Santa's reindeer shed theirs. For a coloring page the antlers stay on.
Reindeer or caribou
Reindeer and caribou are the same species, Rangifer tarandus. The names follow geography and domestication: in Europe and Asia the animal is a reindeer, and in North America it is a caribou, with “reindeer” kept in Alaska and Canada for the semi-domesticated form (University of Alaska Fairbanks; Alaska Department of Fish and Game).
For a class, print the reindeer in the snowy forest and ask children to write which of the two names they would use in their own country.
Antlers are the hard part
Branching antlers are where line art goes wrong, with branches that merge into a blob. Three words help the prompt: “big”, “branching” and “with a few points each”. If the antlers come back as a tangle, generate the page again, or ask for “a reindeer head, front view”, where the antlers are symmetrical.