06/07/2026
There are a lot of new people here, so we wanted to take a minute to talk about the changes in the Christmas village at Old McDonald’s Farm.
🎄After nearly 30 years of having reindeer on our farm,our reindeer have moved on to another frozen pasture.
If you didn't already know, Nancy oversees all the animal care at Old McDonald’s Farm, and while she is extremely active and in good health, she’s not getting any younger! In fact, Nancy turned 70 in April. We are incredibly blessed with a wonderful animal care team, including a vet tech on staff here year round, but some animals can be very high maintenance. Captive reindeer are one of those high-maintenance species.
🎄When Sven had the issue with his antlers, the veterinarian explained to us that reindeer in captivity in the US are becoming more likely to experience health issues as the genetic pool becomes smaller. Over the last 3 years, in addition to Sven’s antler condition, we experienced some health conditions with our reindeer that were hard to diagnose and treat. In fact, on two separate occasions at the end of 2025, we sent our reindeer to the Cornell University veterinary hospital for treatment.
After the second reindeer trip to Cornell on the day of Christmas on the Farm this past December, Nancy decided that she wanted to donate the reindeer to a reindeer farm with more expertise in the species. She reached out to Shortsville Reindeer Farm, near Rochester, and they happily agreed to accept.
🎄As you can see from the video, our reindeer are thriving at Shortsville Reindeer Farm. This is a video of Candy Cane (now named Tomte by Shortsville– all their reindeer have nordic names) pulling a sleigh! Within days of being received at his new home, Candy Cane– now Tomte– was posing for pictures and being led on a line by visitors.
🎄To be honest, we are thrilled that our reindeer are thriving at Shortsville Reindeer Farm. It was definitely the right decision to make this move. Shortsville Reindeer Farm are experts on the species and they have seven reindeer– a full herd– which is how reindeer like to live.
🎄So what’s in the Christmas village at Old McDonald’s Farm this year? This is where the mini highland cows come in! They are our Christmas mini cows! Our mini cows have Christmas themed names– Jack Frost and Merry Moo. We’ve redecorated and refreshed the Christmas barn, and we’ve built new pastures for the mini cows.
🎄We know some people are disappointed that we no longer have reindeer, but we hope that people recognize this was the right decision for the animals and us as a family. And we hope you enjoy the new additions– the Christmas mini cows!
