How do reindeer fuel their Christmas Eve flight? Texas couple combines Christmas celebration with ag education

How do reindeer fuel their Christmas Eve flight? Texas couple combines Christmas celebration with ag education
January 9th, 2023 | RRN Staff

The Eve of Christmas is powered by cookies and milk… for Santa Claus that is. But how do the reindeer fuel their evening flight?

Shannon and Mason Parish, members of the Montgomery County Farm Bureau in Texas, capitalized on that question to teach adults and children alike more about agriculture.

Shannon said Conroe,Texas, located one hour north of Houston, hosts a large Christmas celebration with about 5,000 people in attendance each year. With a growing urban population, the husband and wife duo wanted to expose the celebration goers to the agriculture industry.

“We had feed buckets out on the street where the kids could make their own reindeer trail mix, and at that point we could teach them about what the different feedstuffs would do for the reindeer to help them travel around the world in one night,” Shannon said.

Mason said the area has lost a lot of its agricultural production in recent years, so the couple wanted to come up with the right story to share agriculture information.

Mason said they wanted to “provide something applicable to our students so they could take something as universal as Christmas and be able to understand the deeper pieces of agriculture within the activity.”

The students learned about livestock feedstuffs, including hay, oats and corn. Shannon and Mason hope the activity inspires others to find new and creative ways to engage consumers with the agriculture industry.

Connect with the Parish couple via email at shannonlnorris@gmail.com.

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