The one thing I've always wondered about Santa's reindeer is are they always reindeer? What I mean is that there is basically two names for them: Reindeer, which appears to be the name of choice in Europe and Asia (by English speakers, of course) and Caribou, which appears to be the name for North America. They officially have different scientific names: Rangifer tarandus & Rangifer caribou, but the Random House Dictionary (unabriged) clearly states that caribou are basically the same animal as reindeer.

Here's the question: If the two names are, for the most part,location oriented, when Santa is in the Americas is Rudolph, Olive & the rest caribou? And to further (possibly) complicate matters... I assume Santa has a fairly big plot of land at the North Pole. If so, technically part of it could be considered to be in the Western Hemisphere. When the reindeer are in that part of the property, are they caribou (and do they have different first names, since the ones they have are generally Germanic in origin, like the term reindeer)?

You may guess that I'm going a little stir crazy here, and am anxiously looking forward to my gift...

HAPPY THANKSGIVING ALL - now go out and kill those turkeys so winter can begin!