Vixen, a 2-year-old reindeer, is led to Santa’s Pit Stop at Z Arch Barn Farm in Easton, Pennsylvania. Jessica Kourkounis / The New York Times

Santa’s reindeer had a relatively easy time of it, compared with their earthbound counterparts. While Dasher, Dancer and company were to put in some frantic hours of work Thursday night, the holiday season started in early November for Yukon, Blizzard, Tundra and their 17 herdmates at California Reindeer Rentals.

For Diana Frieling, the company’s owner, the weeks before Christmas are a two-month sprint, packed with more than 50 holiday festivals, photo shoots, parades and other events. Nationwide, a few dozen businesses, mostly mom-and-pop operations, offer reindeer for hire, cramming nearly all of their annual income into the holiday season.

Reindeer are cash cows at this time of year. Prices vary widely around the country, but a two-hour event booking with a pair of reindeer typically starts at around $1,000.

Frieling’s deer have made appearances this season at holiday parties for Zynga and YouTube and are on view daily at the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco.

Like many reindeer ranchers, Frieling, 68, got into the business as a way to subsidize other projects. Her main vocation is Windswept Ranch, a farm in Tehachapi, California, where she shelters some 40 rescued animals, including donkeys, deer, zebras, goats, bison, pigs and a yak.

“We started off with dogs and kittens, and it just kind of progressed,” she said of her eclectic menagerie. About 20 years ago, seeking a way to earn enough money to keep the ranch operating, she hit on the idea of raising and renting out reindeer. The revenue they bring in during the holidays covers most of the farm’s annual costs.

Reindeer loom large in the cultural imagination, but people are often slightly shocked to encounter a live one, owners say.

“I have a lot of adults pull me aside and whisper, ‘What are they really?’” said Mark Sopko, 46, the owner of Reindeer Magic and Miracles in Branchburg, New Jersey.

They are really reindeer. Native to chilly places like the Arctic and parts of northern Europe, reindeer, close relatives of caribou, were imported to Alaska in the 1890s, and are now raised in domesticated herds in dozens of states. An industry trade group, the Reindeer Owners and Breeders Association, has about 140 members, nearly all of them small and independent.

“It’s not a business; it’s a love thing,” said Mike Jablonski, the group’s president, who has 50 reindeer on his farm in Hamburg, New York. “No one is going to become a millionaire off reindeer. They’re very hard to raise.”

Getting into the reindeer business generally requires a five- to six-figure financial outlay. The handful of breeders who sell animals typically charge $1,000 to $6,000 each, and owners say that food and veterinarian bills run about $3,000 annually per deer. Fencing, a barn or shelter, and fans to keep the reindeer cool in the summer, plus the electricity to run them, cost thousands more.

Licenses and permits add to the price. Most states regulate the possession and importation of reindeer, and some places ban them entirely.

Many of those who run reindeer-based businesses say they were inspired to do so by their love of the holiday season. Vince Zarate, 64, an owner of Z Arch Barn Farm in Easton, Pennsylvania, had his curiosity about owning reindeer piqued by the 2003 television movie “Stealing Christmas,” which features a Christmas shop with a live reindeer.

“I saw those deer and wondered how you go about doing that,” he said. “I started doing research, and the harder it got, the more determined I got.”

In 2012, after retiring from a career as a carpentry teacher, Zarate opened a Christmas tree farm and bought five reindeer to populate it. He now has a herd of 10, with three calves due in the spring.

Because the reindeer business is heavily seasonal, most owners book two or three events a day to maximize earnings and accommodate as many clients as possible. Thanksgiving to Christmas is crunch time, though winter festivals and other events keep some businesses busy through March.

Aside from a few “Christmas in July” events, the spring and summer months tend to be slow. For a discount reindeer, try renting one in April. Although the industry got an unexpected stimulus from Disney: Thanks to the huge hit “Frozen,” which prominently features a playful reindeer named Sven, demand for rental reindeer at “Frozen”-themed parties has created a year-round moneymaker.

One irony of the reindeer business, Zarate said, is that he is now so busy with bookings that he is working straight through his favorite time of the year. Frieling said she is often on the road for at least 14 hours a day, covering thousands of miles at events throughout California.

“My family doesn’t celebrate Christmas until the middle of January, when our reindeer come home, but it’s great,” she said. “We get to celebrate with hundreds of thousands of people all over California. When a child is on the edge of not believing in Santa, the realization that reindeer are real translates into one more year of innocence and belief. I can’t think of anything a parent would want more for Christmas.”