Magic Reindeer Food Labels
Bag toppers, labels and a recipe card for Christmas Eve, with your child’s name and a poem.
As it prints Sandwich bag topper
Make it yours
“Mia” is an example: type your child’s name. For brothers, sisters or a class, put one name per line and each gets its own topper. Leave it empty for plain “Magic Reindeer Food”.
Your child’s name never leaves your device. Everything is drawn in this page and the PDF and PNG are built in your browser; nothing is saved. The page counts one anonymous “PDF downloaded” or “PNG downloaded” event, and nothing you typed goes with it.
How to make magic reindeer food bags
- Mix the food. One cup (about 100 g) of rolled oats and two tablespoons of coloured sugar fill about eight small bags at two tablespoons each. The recipe card (above, under Recipe card) prints the same thing for the bag or the fridge door.
- Type the name and pick a poem and a design. The words shrink to fit, so “Christopher” fits as well as “Mia”. Several names, one per line, give one topper or label each.
- Pick the bag. The topper is exactly as wide as the bag: 165 mm (6½ in) for a zip sandwich or snack bag, 100 mm for a 10 × 15 cm (4 × 6 in) cello treat bag. Measure yours if in doubt; anything within a few millimetres works.
- Print at 100% (“Actual size”), cut along the grey line and fold on the dashed line. The fold sits exactly halfway, so the two halves meet at the bottom.
- Slip the folded topper over the top of the filled bag and staple at the two marks, through both layers of card and the bag. On Christmas Eve, sprinkle the food on the grass before bed.
Our poems
The reindeer food poem that circulates online has no known author, so we do not reprint it. These four were written for this page; you are welcome to print them for your family, school or playgroup. Each rhymes in pairs, so the first two lines work alone on a small label.
In the moonlightSprinkle it on the lawn tonight,
the oats will sparkle in the light.
The reindeer smell it from the sky
and know which house to not fly by.
Oats for the journeyOats for the journey, sugar to shine,
scatter it out in a sparkly line.
Hungry reindeer flying by
will spot it from the starry sky.
Before bedBefore you go to bed tonight,
throw this out where the stars are bright.
It tells the reindeer: land right here,
a snack is waiting, Santa’s near!
The whole world roundThe reindeer fly the whole world round,
so we left supper on the ground:
some oats to munch, some sparkle too,
to keep them flying the whole night through.
Questions
Are these magic reindeer food labels free to print?
Yes. No sign-up, no watermark, no paid version. The PDF and the 300 dpi PNG are made in your browser from what you typed, so the name is never uploaded. The PDF holds as many pages as your list of names needs, plus the recipe card as the last page if you leave that box ticked.
What is the magic reindeer food recipe, and why no glitter?
Rolled oats for the reindeer and coloured sugar (or sugar sprinkles) so it “sparkles in the moonlight”. Many older recipes add glitter. Do not: glitter is plastic, and birds and animals eat what is scattered outside. Sugar sparkles too and simply dissolves in the next rain, and the oats get eaten by birds by morning, which is exactly what the children are told the reindeer did.
How do I make a bag topper that fits?
A topper is a strip of card as wide as the bag, folded in half over its top and stapled. The tool makes three: 165 × 124 mm for a 6½ × 5⅞ in sandwich bag, 165 × 80 mm for a 6½ × 3¼ in snack bag (shorter, so the oats still show), and 100 × 100 mm for a 10 cm cello bag. The name and poem sit on the lower half, the face you see once folded; the upper half goes behind the bag and carries one line, “Sprinkle on the grass on Christmas Eve”, printed upside down so it reads the right way round on the back. Letter and A4 both take two sandwich or cello toppers or three snack toppers per sheet.
Can I make a tag or a label instead of a topper?
Yes. Round labels lay out on the round sticker sheets of our address label maker (2 in with 12 per Letter sheet, 1½ in, 1.67 in, 40 mm on A4) or on plain paper with circles to cut or punch; 2 in and 50 mm labels carry the name and the first two lines of the poem. Rectangle labels use its address-label sheets (2⅝ × 1 in, 63.5 × 38.1 mm and 99.1 × 38.1 mm). On the smallest labels the poem would print below 6 pt, so they carry the name only, and the page says so. For a hanging tag, print a round label on card, punch a hole and tie it to the bag with ribbon.
What paper should I use?
Toppers and the recipe card want card: 160–250 g/m² (about 60–90 lb cover) folds cleanly and holds a staple. Score the fold first with a blunt knife against a ruler and it folds crisp. Labels print on sticker sheets or on full-sheet sticker paper you cut yourself. The night-sky and pine designs use a lot of ink; Black & white to colour uses almost none and gives the children something to do while the oats get mixed.
A4 or US Letter?
Both. The page starts on US Letter if your browser is set to US or Canadian English and on A4 everywhere else. Our own sheets keep 10 mm clear at every edge, more than the 3–5 mm most home printers cannot reach. Print at 100%, never “Fit to page”, or a topper made for a 165 mm bag comes out narrower than the bag.