The Hatching Cat of Gotham

The following reindeer story took place on December 12, 1941, just 10 years after the Christmas tree made its unofficial debut at Rockefeller Center — and exactly five days after the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor.

This year would be the last that the Christmas tree was illuminated during World War II. From 1942 to 1944, all of the city’s outdoor trees had to stay dark after sunset under wartime blackout restrictions.

In 1941, the 83-foot tree featured 800 large plastic globe-like bulbs in pastel shades of blue and red. The windows in the buildings surrounding the lower plaza were also decorated with candles, although these were not lit because of the war (it was easy to flip one switch to turn off the tree lights in a war emergency, but not so easy to blow out hundreds of candles).

Despite the reduced illumination, Acting Mayor A. Newbold Morris said there would be “no blackout of Christmas cheer in New York.” To that end, holiday festivities designed to boost everyone’s spirits included two daily Christmas carol performances beneath the tree, seven organ concerts a day, two after-work Christmas concerts performed by the 150+ members of the Rockefeller Center Choristers, four live reindeer from the New York Zoological Society, three French hens, two turtle doves…

(Sorry, no hens or doves, and certainly no partridge in a pear tree.)

The reindeer – three does and one buck — were raised in Lake Placid, New York, and brought to the city by the New York Zoological Society. Much to the children’s disappointment, the four reindeer (or what The New York Times referred to as “half of Santa’s motor power”) did not arrive with Santa.

And instead of flying by magic, they arrived at Rockefeller Center via truck and were then lowered down onto the skating rink by a giant crane.

After their humiliating entrance to the lower-level plaza, the dark gray reindeer (actually woodland caribou) were placed in two rustic enclosures, which were placed on either side of the giant bronze Prometheus sculpture.

Each pen was 18 x 30 feet with tan-bark floors, peat moss carpeting, and evergreen lean-tos. A sign read: Please Don’t Feed Our Reindeer. Santa Claus Wouldn’t Like It.

For the next three weeks, the reindeer munched on their fodder and calmly took in the sights as the Choristers sang “White Christmas,” the organists played “Silent Night,” and the skaters waltzed across the ice.

On January 2, 1943, the reindeer were taken to the Bronx Zoo, where they would spend the rest of their days in a special reindeer range east of the Primate House. They would be the first live reindeer at the zoo since 1907 (four reindeer were displayed at the Bronx Zoo from 1901 to 1907).

In April 1942, the first baby reindeer was born at the Bronx Zoo. The 18-inch-tall male reindeer was named Cupid.

If you enjoyed this tale, you may enjoy reading about the sea lions and penguins that made their debut at Rockefeller Center in July 1941.