12/25/2025
After being in Europe recently for family reasons, we tacked on a trip to both Swedish Lapland, in the Arctic Circle, and Estonia, a former Soviet republic. More to come later, but for today, I’m sticking with reindeer photos. 🙂
Here are some reindeer hanging out after crossing the road in front of us during polar “sunrise,” which, during the ~3 months of polar night in the Arctic Circle in winter is not actually sunrise because the sun doesn’t come above the horizon. It’s instead reflected light, which lasted about 6 hours a day while we were there.
The second photo is a small reindeer from a Sami museum we visited; the Sami are Indigenous peoples who farm reindeer and greatly rely on them. Check out their amazing split hooves.
Reindeer populations are declining due to climate change: https://www.cnn.com/2025/12/25/climate/holidays-animals-climate-change-christmas-hanukkah?cid=ios_app