Reindeer games enchant Naperville crowd

Mistletoe needed her nap and by golly, she was going to have it.

It's not easy being a middle-aged reindeer besieged by children all day who want you to stand and look charming while Santa ho, ho, hos in the background.

"Is she dead?" one little boy asked, pointing to her compatriot, Angel.

"No," her handler said, as the surrounding adults chuckled, "just sleeping."

The duo camped out momentarily Sunday after a day's worth of standing at Naper Settlement in Naperville.

And they were quite the hit -- even immobile.

As they lay sleeping, fuzzy ears periodically flicking back and forth to pick up stray sounds, children of all ages leaned down to pet their dozing forms.

The 19th-century Christmas celebration drew quite a crowd, and exhibits involving furry beasts were particularly popular. Wagons full of riders toured the property behind a beautiful pair of black draft horses.

Of course, Mistletoe, 12, and Angel, 18 months, had their adoring fans.

And teams of Siberian Huskies drew crowds of spectators.

"She's really cute," Kirstin Herr of Darien said between wet, sloppy kisses from the sleek gray sled dog waiting her turn at a run.

Her teammate, Pixie, wasn't doing the whole waiting thing quite as gracefully. She howled with anticipation. And then whined for emphasis.

That dog wanted to run. NOW. And at the first cry of "Hike" she was off like a shot.

Seven-year-old Fresca Canlas ran alongside a team in encouragement, though her cries of "the sled's too heavy" might not have boosted the ego of the handler so much.

The Naperville girl said she was fascinated by the snowy canine activity.

"I want to go on it," she said.

Unfortunately for her, the dogs wound up with their same old handlers atop the sleds.