The Narrator would interact with the reindeer as things popped up, the reindeer would ask things about what is going on and the narrator would answer them as rhe story continues. 

I wanted the reindeer to sound like Elliott from Pete's dragon as I like how the voice is just basically noises but Pete understands and can have conversations with the dragon as the reindeer would do with the narrator.

I went to a worshop for model making and ending up making a wire frame reindeer.

twisting wire for the skeleton, cover the wire in sponge and then cut to shape the body, roughly.  The golden brown fabric I already had but the furr I found on a winter hat in a charity shop. The fabric I either stitched or glued to the sponge. If parts of the body needing filling out, I just used teady bear stuffing for that. 

For the jaw I just attached another piece of twisted wire to the top jaw, covered in fabric and added a tongue