Two reindeer, Eula and Rika, are the new stars of the Miller Park Zoo in Illinois. Staffers collect their droppings, dry them and make Christmas ornaments, which consist of painting, clear coating or rolling them in glitter. Susie Ohley, the Zoo Marketing Director, has called them “magical reindeer gem ornaments” and they are for sale in the zoo's gift shop. They cost about $5 each and come with label of authenticity from the zoo.

How did they come up with this idea? It seems that Susie asked the staffer, Katie Buydos, to lend some creativity to the table and she has willingly obliged by donating wire and beads for the jewelry, which Katie makes as a hobby. The folks at the gift shop are surprised at the size of the “gems”, which are only as big as size of marbles. Zoo maintenance worker, Sheldon Williams, offered a good perspective over these new Christmas ornaments: ““Reindeer are so big but the droppings are ‘just a big pile of small’.” Even if reindeer are not small animals, their waste productions come out in small chunks suitable for the branches of a tree.

As Christmas is fast approaching, this looks like an excellent marketing idea for a zoo or for a shop. It's really not something you can present as “a Christmas tradition,” but who knows? This might just become one.