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This helps confirm my theory that all reindeer have some type of light emission from their nose and Rudolph was the result of a mutation that moved the light emission to visible spectrum.

This would suggest all reindeeer emit UV light form their nose which they use to communicate with one another.

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Nonamerican here. Is the joke that the nose is typically/always lit up in decorations? (Sorry if I'm ruining it by asking to confirm an explanation of the joke; I could rot13 it if that makes the situation any better ^^')

The joke is simply referring to "Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer," one of Santa's reindeer that has a bright red nose to help light the way. Those decorations would also be referring to Rudolph.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rudolph_the_Red-Nosed_Reindeer

The nose is only lit up for Rudolph…

Well, all the childhood cartoons show Rudolph’s nose glowing red.

Of course, with a bright glowing red omnidirectional light source directly in front of the eyes, it’s a bit strange he or anyone else in the sled could see where they were going!!! (Nobody talks about that)

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