The Feel Good Toy of 2018 Was Created in the Treasure Valley; Meet Randy the Reindeer

This little guy has been making his rounds on social media and Treasure Valley TV stations over the last few weeks! Now he wants to be best friends with your littles.

At first glance, Randy the Reindeer appears to be just like other adorable plush reindeer you see on store shelves around the holidays. He likes tagging along for long walks in the snow, fresh baked cookies and the color green.  Look a little closer at his photo and you'll realize he's actually not just another Christmas stuffed animal.  He's holding some cards in his hooves.  Are they his wish list for Santa? Not at all!

As one of Santa's special helpers, Randy wants to help make kindness a tradition in Treasure Valley homes during this Christmas season.  The cards in his hands are "kindness cards" that issue families a kindness challenge each day in the month of December.  Some of the challenges include leaving flowers on windshields in a parking lot, leaving fresh baked cookies at your neighbor's doorstep or having the kids donate some of the toys they're not playing with to kids who may not otherwise be getting something for Christmas.

In the day and age where kids have their own YouTube channels dedicated to unboxing the latest, greatest most over the top toys it can be hard to keep your kiddo's head on straight when it comes to the true meaning of the season. That's why the Van Vorous family of Nampa introduced "Randy" into their home five years ago.  Ashlie and her husband Daniel wanted to teach their kids that the magic of Christmas lies more in spreading kindness and joy than the toys that appear under tree on Christmas morning.  They grabbed a stuffed reindeer from the store and handwrote notes with a kindness challenge from "Randy" each day in December to make showing kindness fun!

They shared the concept with their friends, the Bartlettes, and the families decided that they wanted to introduce Randy to the world! So they got to work on a protoype and when they got it back from the toy maker they were working with, he was perfect. They're now selling their official "Randy the Reindeer" to families across the country!

Since we shared his story, parents and teachers across the Treasure Valley have asked how they can get their hands on this incredibly cool holiday toy invented by two local moms.  They're selling him through their website for $30 and offer local pick-up of you'd like to get your hands on him ASAP!

Ashlie and Rachel also donated a bunch of Randy the Reindeer to LITE-FM to put spread more smiles across the Treasure Valley this Christmas! If you'd like to win one for your family, be listening Monday-Friday this week for the LITE-FM Pop Quiz at 7:25. Get two of my three silly easy questions correct to win your very own Randy and two passes to Winter Garden aGlow at the Idaho Botanical Gardens!