Letter: Slights on Santa's sleigh-pullers

Sir: Anyone with the slightest grasp of the logistics of world-wide distribution can see that, far from disqualifying them, the characteristics attributed to reindeer by Malcolm Smith make them perfect sleigh-pullers (21 December).

Reindeer are, of course, modified by elves for supersonic and subsonic travel and their impervious coats protect them both from hypothermia at 30,000 feet (intercontinental travel) and from re-entry burn-up during quick descent. Wide, splayed hairy feet make for accurate rooftop landings from which, using the principle (inverted) by which jets take off from aircraft carriers, they can quickly regain the skies without the overheating that would, admittedly, accompany an earthbound takeoff.

Anyway, I distinctly saw Santa, his reindeer and a fully loaded sleigh overflying the Coal House Inn, Apperley, at 11pm on Christmas Eve 1984.

Yours faithfully,

ANDREW LEEKE

Deerhurst, Gloucestershire

22 December