reindeer games

The natives are a primitive but gregarious lot. They invited me to join them in their reindeer games, which I did.

1984, Joseph Dougherty, Digby: A Play, New York, N.Y.: Dramatists Play Service, published 1986, →OCLC, page 68

His unhappiness was not due solely to the ravages of adolescence, the eccentricities of his family, exclusion from his peers' reindeer games, or even by living in the embodiment of Thornton Wilder's Our Town. It was all of those things and none of them.

2002, Terry J. Kunkel, “An Older Reflection”, in Is Wanting Enough? […], Lincoln, Neb.: Writers Club Press, iUniverse, →ISBN, part I (Lighting the Race Point Luminaria on Cape Cod), page 40

It's tough being different in a society where conformity is so very important. Not the type of different that caused you to be picked on by the big kids in grade school because you wore glasses or didn't join the reindeer games, but the type of different that caused you to listen up in class and always do your homework.

2003 October 27, Tim Dannelly, “The Top, Home of the Lonely Brave”, in Living the American Dream, [Bloomington, Ind.]: 1stbooks, →ISBN

When socializing it's important that you never talk business unless they bring it up. If you do, you'll find out quickly that you're no longer invited to any of the really good reindeer games. Rather, be a good listener.

2006, Christopher Duncan, “Managing Your Management”, in Dominic Shakeshaft, editor, The Career Programmer: Guerilla^([sic]) Tactics for an Imperfect World (The Expert’s Voice), 2nd edition, Berkeley, Calif.: Apress, →ISBN, part II (Guerilla Tactics for Front-line Programmers), page 171

Some fighter pilot traditions have taken on the air of reindeer games—they are nothing more than something one has to be a fighter pilot to understand.

2007, Jonathan C. Dowty, “Fighter Pilot Traditions”, in Christian Fighter Pilot is Not an Oxymoron, [U.S.A.?]: [Jonathan C. Dowty], →ISBN, part 1 (Fighter Pilot Foundations), page 23