On Dasher, on Dancer, on Prancer and Vixen...

It's one of the most well known stories of the holiday season. The tale of Santa's hard-working team of reindeer is a Christmas classic that first originated in the 1823 poem “A Visit from St. Nicholas” (otherwise known as “The Night Before Christmas”). But the magical story may be slightly different than you were first led to believe - and one woman’s theory about Santa’s reindeer will completely change the way you see the story. Twitter user Cat Reynolds dropped the festive fact on social media, where she pointed out that Dasher, Dancer, Prancer and Co couldn’t be male. And it all comes down to the fact that adult male reindeer shed their antlers during .the winter, while female reindeers do it during the summer. So it stands to reason that since Santa’s team of reindeer are always pictured pulling the sleigh through the snow with antlers atop their heads, they’re most likely a team of women. Yes, even Rudolph. https://twitter.com/catreynoldsnyc/status/940286829428912128 Cat excitedly pointed out:

"MALE REINDEER LOSE THEIR ANTLERS IN WINTER AND FEMALES DON'T THEREFORE SANTA'S SLEIGH IS ACTUALLY PULLED BY A TEAM OF STRONG, POWERFUL, UNDERRATED WOMEN!!!!! “YOU GO, GIRLS!! I SEE YOU!!!"

Her initial tweet has since gone viral, with more than 200,000 retweets and 660,000 likes. And people were pretty stoked about the idea. https://twitter.com/fgszabo/status/940614979325186048   https://twitter.com/samanthatycz/status/940695631022174209 And it looks like she’s right The original eight - Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Donner and Blitzen - are often thought of and referred to as males in pop culture, along with the infamous red-nosed Rudolph. But the holly jolly truth bomb may not be so new. In research published in 2009, Edinburgh University professors Gerald Lincoln and David Baird said the red-nosed celebrity of song and screen was unlikely be male. They told the Telegraph:

"Rudolph classically is this red-nosed reindeer who is around at Christmas. "We picture him in the snow with his antlers, but if you know anything about nature you discover that things are not quite so straightforward. "Male reindeer actually cast their antlers before Christmas, so they don't have any antlers at Christmas time. "They have their mating season in autumn when they use their antlers to fight, but once it finishes they cast them. "So you can't picture Rudolph as a big red-nosed macho male because he has cast his antlers already and can't arrive on your doorstep with his antlers on, looking handsome."

But Professor Lincoln did come across an interesting discovery during his research into how female reindeer grow and cast their antlers. Apparently, if a male reindeer is castrated, it stops the process of casting its antlers - and ends up becoming more like a female. He admitted:

“Rudolph could be a castrated male, or a female. I think it’s nicest to think that Rudolph was a female!”