Reindeer ‘Games’ at This Farm Are Educational — and Pure Magic
Mike and Lisa Schaertl welcome the public to learn about and interact with some of Santa’s favorites at the Shortsville Reindeer Farm
By Linda Quinlan
Dancer, Prancer and Rudolph, just some of Santa Claus’ beloved team of reindeer, may live in the North Pole. But to see, learn about and maybe even feed a reindeer, you don’t have to travel further than the Ontario County village of Shortsville.
Mike and Lisa Schaertl welcomed their first two reindeer to their Shortsville farm in 2017. Eight years later, they have seven and Mike, for one, is hoping there will be more by early spring. At least two reindeer have been born on his farm to date.
The couple’s Shortsville Reindeer Farm is now a local attraction. It draws thousands of visitors at Christmas time and year-round.
The most common question he is asked is “Why reindeer,” Mike said. He recalls that it all started on Christmas Eve in 2015, when he was reading an article in “The New York Times” about a Christmas tree farm that had reindeer. That farm, it turns out, hosted the annual conference of the Reindeer Owners and Breeders Association the following year. Mike and Lisa traveled to Pennsylvania to attend the conference.
After the conference, Mike said he said to his wife that it might be “a neat thing to try” — having reindeer, that is.
“Well, she didn’t say no,” Mike said.
After building a barn and tall outer fencing to accommodate reindeer, the first two arrived.
“They’re neat to have as pets,” Mike said.
The reindeer don’t like to be hugged or touched, Mike explained, “but they don’t mind being around children and adults.”
The first Christmas season he invited the public to his farm to see the reindeer, “We were mobbed,” he said.
Around three years ago, he had to build a second barn to accommodate farm visitors.
In case you were wondering, Mike calls his herd Santa’s “second string reindeer.”
“Santa can call on us if our reindeer are needed in an emergency,” he said. “But so far we’ve had no calls.”
The Schaertls however lock the reindeer in the barns on Christmas Eve. “Because that’s the only night they can fly,” Mike explained, adding that there is a lot of noise in the barn that night.
When asked about any reindeer with red noses, Mike also has an answer: “Rudolph’s the only reindeer with a red nose and he stays at the North Pole with Santa.”
When children remember one of his reindeer named Moose and ask after him, Mike explains that he has retired and gone to live at the North Pole with Santa.
Sadly, Moose is among five of his reindeer who have died, Mike said, explaining that ticks, especially those from white-tailed deer, can be lethal to reindeer.
The Schaertls do their very best to keep the reindeer healthy, which is why they ask visitors to step in sanitizer before entering the reindeer barns.
Reindeer are actually closely related to caribou, which are indigenous to North America, Mike said. Most reindeer today are semi-domesticated. Their origins can be traced back to northern Scandinavia or Russia.
Five of the Schaertls’ current reindeer are from Alaska and two, Maija and Henry, were born at the local farm.
Their mother is Freja, who also resides at the reindeer farm.
The reindeer all have names, just like Santa’s famous team. Besides Maija, Henry and Freja, there are Bronco, Boo, Brida and Sassy.
Mike retired from the Shortsville-Manchester School District in 2022. He taught physics and chemistry starting in 1997. He had previously taught in Geneva for four years and one year in Pennsylvania. An Army veteran, he served at posts in Alaska and Germany. He earned his teaching certificate from Drexel University.
He and Lisa married in 1984 and raised two sons and two daughters, now living and working in Washington state, California, Boston and Brockport.
Before he decided to retire, Mike said he realized that his students “were taking time away from the reindeer.”
Today, reindeer are his priority. He has even driven two of them, Sassy and Brida, to New York City to appear in an Allstate “mayhem” commercial for television. They ended up appearing in the commercial only about two seconds, Mike said, but adds that it was a memorable experience.
While he and Lisa tend the farm and the reindeer, they also have a core of volunteers who help out when needed. At Christmas time, for instance, each of the reindeer has a handler who helps young visitors “walk” and feed the reindeer, who will eat out of a person’s outstretched hand.
Understandably, the herd and farm can be an expensive operation, so Mike has devised ways to keep it going and growing. At Christmas time, for instance, visitors can sign up for one-hour visits at the farm for a nominal fee. Mike, ever the educator, gives visitors a brief talk before they have time to interact with the reindeer.
Those sessions are offered for six hours every Saturday and Sunday after Thanksgiving and usually sell out. Each one-hour visit is limited to 60 people, who must pre-register on the farm’s website. That means at least 360 visitors on just weekend day in the Christmas season. The farm also opens four hours a day, Monday through Friday, the week of Christmas.
Among the visitors people may see at the farm is Mrs. Claus, who travels down from the North Pole to lend a hand. Sherry Brown of Shortsville knows her well.
“She’s really there to keep the kids calm and occupied,” Brown said. “But no two days are ever the same.”
Most people ask where Santa is, she said. But Mrs. Claus reminds them that December is his busy time of year and he has to stay at the North Pole with the elves to get ready for the big night, Dec. 24.
Visitors are still surprised and delighted to see Mrs. Claus. Brown recalls the blind, disabled gentleman, probably in his 40s or 50s, who visited with his caregiver. “He just wanted to sit on a bench and talk with Mrs. Claus and hold her hand,” she recalled. “He was so excited.”
On another memorable occasion, a boy with autism insisted that only Mrs. Claus accompany him to visit and feed the reindeer.
“The boy’s mother started crying [happy tears], saying that he had never been comfortable enough to do something like that before,” Brown said.
Visitors call a trip to the farm “magical.”
The Schaertls start off the holiday season by offering eight or nine different professional photographers the chance to do mini sessions with the reindeer in November. Then Schaertl takes the reindeer to the Windmill Farm and Craft Market in Penn Yan on “Black Friday,” the day after Thanksgiving, for shoppers there to enjoy.
There are opportunities to see the reindeer and attend events at the farm almost year-round.
On Oct. 5, the farm offered its first Volksmarsch, a 5K nature hike and German-themed festival with live music and more. There was also a 48-hour “ultra” racing event, for runners, in September.
Schaertl also hosts apple-picking, crushing, pressing and cider-drinking events in the fall.
In the spring, he leads visitors into the woods to tap maple trees and learn about making maple syrup, which is then bottled and sold at the farm, as is honey from the bees he keeps.
Since reindeer lose their “velvet” covered antlers starting in January each year, Schaertl collects them and has them not only for display but also makes jewelry from them that he sells at the farm. Yes, each reindeer’s antlers get bigger every year, too.
All proceeds are used for the upkeep of the reindeer and the farm, where Mike and his wife reside with their dog, Clancy, who likes to chase the reindeer.
Mike also now has four sleighs on the farm and has done sleigh rides in the past. “But our insurance company said no,” he said.
He does wagon rides on occasion. The reindeer can also be “hired” for events like festivals and special events.
Mike has a bright red trailer in which the reindeer travel.
In February 2026, the Shortsville Reindeer Farm is hosting the annual conference of the Reindeer Farmers’ Association. He expects up to 120 reindeer owners from the U.S., Canada and Europe. Members of the Reindeer Owners and Breeders Association visited earlier this year.
There is also a Christmas tree farm in Naples that has reindeer, he added.
In case readers are wondering, reindeer are pretty quiet “pets.”
“They really don’t make noise. They only grunt when they are stressed,” Mike explained. “Their main ‘noise’ comes from a tendon in their ankles that makes a clicking sound.”
“Click” on the farm’s website, shortsvillereindeer.com and you might just be transported to the magical world of Santa’s reindeer, too.