I am often frustrated, when reading Christmas books about Santa and his Reindeer, to see that the illustrator has drawn another type of deer, very often a Fallow Deer that has been hybridised with a Roe Deer.

It’s nearly Christmas and the thought of making a video of how to draw Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer briefly came to mind – as it does every year. But Rudolph is subject to copyright.

Then it struck me – That’s the reason! Don’t draw Reindeer and you will be safe from copyright.

But it seems to be a bit more complicated than that.

The Original Rudolph, in the book by Robert L May, looks very much like a Roe Deer. He certainly doesn’t look like a reindeer.

In fact, Santa’s whole team are Roe Deer.

So, to get around copyright the obvious thing to do would be to draw your Rudolph as a Reindeer!

But why don’t they do that?

Roe Deer are just more cute – Fallow Deer even more so.

As far as copyright goes, you can’t use the name nor, in theory, can you use the iconic red nose.

But the name is Rudolph the Red-nosed REINDEER. If you draw just that, then you are breaching copyright in the description. If you draw a Roe-ish deer with a red nose, then you are copying the original image. So you can’t win.

They’ve got it stitched up both ways. It’s not worth drawing Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer.

But why then does Santa’s sleigh rarely appear drawn by Reindeer without red noses and with an honest name like… Sven?

I think it’s all down to their shape. Reindeer heads hang low, below their shoulders. They look like they are depressed and in need to of some of those famed magic mushrooms that the image of Santa is supposed to be based on.

It’s hard to draw a perky Reindeer that is looking forward to his Christmas dinner of festive lichen.

Much better to draw a perky Roe Deer faun that is dreaming of being Santa’s Little Helper and feasting on roast chestnuts and chocolate yule logs!