It sounds like a Hallmark movie: The Magic of Mom’s Christmas Reindeer

Can I share something both corny and strange but true?  As I’ve never married and always lived alone, I’ve never really done any holiday decorating.

(That changed a couple years ago, I do a little decorating now for Christmas.)

Anyway, before my mom died in 2004, this always frazzled her.  One year in the mid-1990s when I was back home for my birthday, Mom asked what kind of decorations I had up in my apartment. 

When I said I didn’t decorate for Halloween, she almost blew a gasket.  “But it’s your BIRTHDAY!”

She offered to buy me a truckload of spooky fixins, I declined.  So the very next year, she gave me an oversized Jack-o-lantern mug filled with candy. 

She said “Can you at least set this ONE thing out for Halloween and make your old mother happy?”  I actually liked the mug very much, and for the last 25 years or so, I’ve set it out every October.

It was a few years after that, around 1999 or 2000, when I went home for Christmas for a couple days.  Dad was still with us (just barely) and we were going to open one gift each on Christmas Eve.  Mom wanted me to open something small she got me, and the package was squishy & soft, and I assumed it was a ski cap and gloves.  But when I tore off the wrapping, there was a small reindeer inside. 

It had a goofy face & antlers, and it was VERY soft, silky to the touch.  It’s toy fur sparkled with glints of silver, and it wore a jingle bell collar.  Mom said “I know you’re a Grinch when it comes to Christmas and don’t decorate your bachelor pad—but I thought you could set this ONE thing out on a chair or your bed.  Would that be asking too much?” 

Every year after that, I plopped that goofy plush reindeer on the pillows on my bed or on my couch a couple weeks before Christmas.  I became pretty fond of that little guy, especially after Mom died. 

This went on for 15 years, until 2016 when I made the ill-fated decision to give up my apartment in the city and move back to my hometown.  I kept that reindeer in a large Macy’s bag with holiday gift wrap & bows, which was lost somehow in the move.  

I wasn’t even aware it was missing for a couple months, until Christmas rolled around.  But there was nothing I could do.  How in the world could I replace a toy reindeer my mom had given me 16 years before? 

A few months later, in April 2017 I moved back to the city and life went on.

And then a couple nights ago, I go on Ebay to look for some old-school Sony headphones for my MP3 player.  I notice on my ‘homepage’ there are various categories of items if you scroll down the page far enough.  Items I’ve bought in the past, Related Items, Household items, Electronics, Vintage stuffed animals. 

Vintage stuffed animals??  I’ve never bought a stuffed animal in my life, vintage or otherwise.  And suddenly I see it—Mom’s Christmas reindeer.

You’ve gotta believe me, I was NOT looking for this toy.  Mine was lost 5-6 years ago, I had no knowledge who made it, no recollection of it’s name.  But the moment I saw those antlers, the red COMET name-tag and “tinsel fur”, I knew this was the same one. 

Shocked, I hit that ‘Buy it Now’ button.  (Oh and I got my 2013 Sony earphones too.)

The little guy arrived via the mail just 3 days later, and here it is.  It looks and feels EXACTLY like the one I lost 5 years ago.  And I know this sounds terribly corny, but I feel like my mom has somehow worked a little of her holiday magic again.