I picked up this cute manga at Barnes and Noble. The premise: a lonely girl bumps into a boy - who tells her he's really a reindeer and she's Santa!

While the whole Santa/reindeer thing doesn't really fit in with traditional Santa-Claus myths, it makes for a rather sweet and funny story here. There are lots of "Santas", you see - which explains all those people in red-and-white outfits - and each one has a single magical reindeer, with the two being bound by an invisible-to-others rein. Most of them, though, just see each other at Christmas, and go about their regular lives otherwise. But in this story, young Kurumi and her meet-cute reindeer/boy Kaito wind up much more closely attached - though at first that's only because Kaito seems to have a bad case of "must be with my master at all times". ("This time of year always brings out the weirdos," thinks Kurumi. She doesn't know the half of it yet!)

Once Kurumi figures out that Kaito really is a magical reindeer, she takes her new duties to heart, setting up a present-delivery schedule and everything. This impresses Kaito's family (of whom several members are also reindeer for different Santas), since they think that Kaito's a bit... dim, and could use the help. (He does seem overly puppy-ish much of the time, but in the story it's rather charming.)

The actual Christmas-eve events are not, surprisingly, the climax of the story, but just one episode. After the first run has been completed, we switch to a beach scene (!), where Kaito gets sunstroke (reindeer aren't made for hot weather). There are funny bits involving his ability to appear out of nowhere whenever his master calls. There's a mildly poignant side-story about a just-friends reindeer/Santa pair in which the reindeer makes one final appearance to carry off the soul of the elderly Santa.

And there are some "what do you want for Christmas" stories too, one of them involving a young boy who's very ill and wants to send a message to a close friend whom he hasn't been able to see since he went to the hospital. {sniffle}

There's a bonus story about a handsome vampire who's trying to stay on the wagon by getting his blood from sources other than by biting people - and then a little girl shows up at his door and calls him "Daddy," which is odd because vampires don't procreate that way. There are some scary scenes in this one, and a rather disturbing twist based on the problems of immortals dealing with mortals.

Overall, the artwork's decent, and I loved the adorable chibi-reindeer image at the beginning of the story. I may check out the next volume and see where the story goes from here.

I donated this book to the Windham library book sale (the proceeds benefit Friends of the Library programs). Hope the buyer enjoys the book!

*** Released as part of the December 2014 Christmas release challenge. ***