🦌 How to Draw Santa's Reindeer | Easy Drawing for Kids

Watch my directed drawing video on how to draw one of Santa’s cute cartoon reindeer

While we are on our holiday theme, let’s see if we can do an easy directed drawing of one of Santa’s cute little reindeer 🦌. There are a couple of tricky parts to the drawing, like the antlers, but I tried to keep it as simple as possible. My goal was to make the directed drawing easy enough for preschoolers and kindergarteners, but also fun for older kids and adults just starting to draw cartoons. Away! 🛷 – Patrick O.

Follow these directed drawing instructions that make a Santa’s reindeer drawing easy to do:

First, let’s draw Santa’s reindeer’s head and eyes. Draw a tall oval in the upper right corner of the page for the reindeer’s head. Then draw two smaller circles inside, near the top of the oval for the reindeer’s eyes.
Now let’s finish drawing the reindeer’s eyes. Draw half circles inside the eye’s for the reindeer’s pupils. Then fill them in, except for a small white space near the top for light reflection. Add some upward curving lines above the eye’s for happy eyebrows.
Next draw Santa’s reindeer’s nose and mouth. Add two small circles near the bottom of the head for nostrils, and a curved line above them, separating the snout from the rest of the head. Finish with a small zig-zagged line under the chin for a furry little beard.
Then it’s time to draw the reindeer’s tricky antlers. Start with a “sideways S” shaped line up and over from one side of the top of the reindeer’s head. Draw the mirror image of that line on the other side of the head. From the end of those lines draw some bumps heading back toward the center of the head. Finish each antler by following the first curve back to the top of the head.
Draw the reindeer’s ears. Just under each antler draw a straight line out from the side of the head. Then draw a curved line down and back to the head for a knife shape. Draw small lines inside the reindeer’s ears to give them a more depth.
Now let’s draw the reindeer’s body. Start with a small curved line away from the bottom left of the head for the reindeer’s neck. From there, draw the outline of a backwards “L” shape for a bent front leg. Continue the line back for the reindeer’s belly, and draw another backwards “L” for the hind leg. Finish the body with a curved line up and connect it back to the head.
Add the reindeer’s hooves, tail, and other legs. Draw a backwards “L” shape just in front of the existing front leg, to give the impression of the other front leg just behind it. Repeat this for the hind leg. Then draw small zig-zagged lines to separate the hooves from the rest of the leg. Finish with the reindeer’s tail by drawing a horizontal line out from the back and connecting it back again with a zig-zagged line.
Give Santa’s reindeer a harness and some bells. Draw two vertical lines through the body of the reindeer from the top of the back to the belly. Add small circles on top and in between the lines for the bells. Finish them with little plus signs so they can jingle!
Finally, let’s make the reindeer fly with some magic dust! To the right of the reindeer add some small criss-crossed lines for magic sparkles as Santa’s reindeer flies through the sky delivering presents.