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The legend of Santa Claus goes way back, and branches off in many directions. But he has only used reindeer to pull his sleigh full of toys for the past 200 years or so… or at least that’s as far back as the research goes. This article at Cryptozoology hints at even earlier beginnings. The veracity of this research is documented at the bottom of the page, but it’s an interesting read. The true story of how Santa harnessed his reindeer is comparatively recent.
In 1821, William Gilley published a booklet for children about “Santeclaus”, entitled A New Year’s Present, to the Little Ones from Five to Twelve Number III: The Children’s Friend. It was the first literary reference connecting reindeer with Santa.
Old Santeclaus with much delight
His reindeer drives this frosty night.
O’er chimneytops, and tracks of snow,
To bring his yearly gifts to you.
The tradition become part of our folklore with the publication of A Visit from St. Nicholas by Clement C. Moore in 1823 (better known today as Twas the Night Before Christmas). This poem named the standard 8 tiny reindeer. They were named Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Dunder, and Blixen. In the 1823 newspaper version of the poem, the spelling Blixem was used, although it was changed to Blitzen when Moore published the poem under his own name. The spelling of the original Dunder was changed to Donder and then to Donner in some modern versions.
Rudolph and all of the other reindeer, after the jump.
The character Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer was created in 1939 by Robert L. May as an advertising gimmick for Montgomery Ward. The store distributed millions of coloring books featuring Rudolph between 1939 and 1944.
Rudolph became the subject of a Max Fleischer cartoon in either 1944 or 1948 (sources list both years).
May’s brother-in-law Johnny Marks wrote a song about Rudolph, which was featured in the cartoon. It was recorded by Gene Autry and became a hit in 1949.
Rudolph got another boost in popularity when Rankin-Bass produced a stop-motion animated Christmas special of the story, which first aired in 1964. Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer became the longest-running holiday special ever. It airs tonight on CBS.
Following the popularity of Rudolph, the reindeer population at Santa’s village grew considerably in popular culture. Many of these were relatives, assistants, or rivals to Rudolph. Robbie the Reindeer is the son of Rudolph and a character in two BBC comedy specials.
Olive, the Other Reindeer was the subject of a 1997 book and a 1999 Christmas special produced by Matt Groening. The title is a pun from the line “all of the other reindeer..” from the Rudolph song.
Country music stars have attempted to duplicate the success of Gene Autry’s recording. In the 1962 Ray Steven’s song “Santa Claus is Watching You” (rerecorded in 1985), more reindeer were added to the herd, namely Bruce, Marvin, Leon, Cletus, George, Bill, Slick, Do-right, Clyde, Ace, Blackie, Queenie, Prince, Spot, and Rover. You may remember Clyde as the camel from Steven’s earlier song “Ahab the Arab”. Loretta Lyn had a song in 1974 named “Shadrack, the Black Reindeer“. Shadrack helped an aging Rudolph to lead the team that year. In 1995, Joe Diffie released “Leroy the Redneck Reindeer”, who led the team one year when Rudolph had a cold. That’s 28 reindeer. There should be enough deer to cover all exigencies.
As you leave out milk and cookies for Santa (or whiskey, depending on your generosity), be sure to leave some reindeer food for Rudolph and his cohorts! Here’s a recipe. Kids can either sprinkle this on the lawn (easier to find if it’s covered with snow) or leave for Santa to feed the reindeer himself.
Comments (21)
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My favorite is “Grandma Got run Over by a Reindeer” back in the 80’s.
posted by Melissa on 12-4-2007 at 8:17 am
Now if we could just figure out which one did it…
posted by Miss Cellania on 12-4-2007 at 8:19 am
There is also the South Park episode “Red Sleigh Down”, in which Santa gets shot down over Iraq. To go rescue him, the kids have to take the backup sleigh pulled by Steven, Fluffy, Horace, Chantel, Skippy, Rainbow, Patches, and Montel.
posted by ecurbh on 12-4-2007 at 8:20 am
Thanks for the reindeer info, MC. Now about extingencies… Are you trying to legitimize this goofy term, or did you intend to use contingency?
I believe this is the first time I have encountered it. I suppose it could mean exigent contingencies or could have something to do with extinction or putting out a fire, but we have got on so famously without it all these years, why?
posted by teal on 12-4-2007 at 8:38 am
Do you believe I Googled the word to make sure I was spelling it correctly? As I was in a hurry, I figured with all those links, it must be right. Wrong… with all those links, a lot of people misspell it! I meant exigencies. Thanks, corrected.
posted by Miss Cellania on 12-4-2007 at 8:45 am
Thanks Miss C for the great reindeer info! I especially like the recipe for the reindeer – the kids will love doing that.
Melissa, no offense but if I have to hear “Grandma got run over by a reindeer” more than one time this year I will consider jumpingg off the nearest bridge!!!!!
posted by JaneM on 12-4-2007 at 9:26 am
Nice article. I had completely forgot about the Ray Steven’s song. Ahhh good times.
Anyway, we can increase that count to 30 with Pancho and Pedro from the Guster song “Dónde Está Santa Claus” from “Maybe This Christmas Too”
posted by JB on 12-4-2007 at 9:45 am
I really like the old song “Dominick the Italian Christmas Donkey” – although technically not a reindeer.
posted by Ben on 12-4-2007 at 9:45 am
There is a song where Santa has to use Dominic the Donkey when he goes through the hills of Italy.
posted by Arne on 12-4-2007 at 9:47 am
I’m with you Melissa, I like ‘Grandma got run over by a reindeer’ too! Does that make us demented or something? :]
posted by Melinda on 12-4-2007 at 2:10 pm
Miss C, thank you so much for the great cartoon! Talk about viral! Can you imagine any of the current christmas advertisements so infiltrating society 68 years from now??
posted by Larriann on 12-4-2007 at 7:24 pm
It’s funny, last year and now, I didn’t hear “Grandma got run over…” too much, but they’ve made it that I want to strangle that damn donkey. (haha)
posted by Tdave on 12-5-2007 at 1:58 am
Perhaps I was too sensitive as a child, but I have clear memories of being HORRIFIED by “Grandma Got Run Over…”. I think I actually cried when I heard it, and told my grandmother about it. I think she cried too, with laughter.
posted by Molly W. on 12-5-2007 at 10:38 am
Molly, what is really horrifying is realizing how long ago that was… and I was the dj playing it on the radio when it first came out.
posted by Miss Cellania on 12-5-2007 at 11:32 am
I think it was Comet who got grandma. He seems to have a fiery streak in him.
posted by Tdave on 12-8-2007 at 1:08 am
I used the question “Name all ten of Santa’s reindeer” for an extra credit question with my fifth graders. I was expecting “Olive the other reindeer,” but now I have to give credit for Shadrack, Cletus, Clyde, and Heaven knows how many others! My son-in-law monitors my classroom blog site, and he’s going to give me no end of grief! I’m interested at how many of my students found your site in looking for an answer to my question.
posted by Tom on 12-17-2007 at 11:55 pm
Does anyone remember the Saturday Night Live sketch where Santa gets sick and is replaced by Jon Lovitz’s Hanukkah Harry? He had three reindeer.
“On Moishe, On Herschel, On Shlomo!”
posted by Krim on 12-15-2008 at 2:10 pm
Don’t forget Plutebobelle. She had a large bushy tail, and was placed behind the sleigh to sweep the tracks away so that kids wouldn’t try to follow Santa. I think the song was performed by Billy Ed Wheeler, but was written by a friend of my Mother’s Harold Allred.
posted by PJMoore on 12-15-2008 at 2:27 pm
When my brother and I were very young, we’d leave cookies for Santa and an apple or carrot for Rudolph. By the time we were 6 and 7, we thought that was unfair to the rest of the reindeer. So we decided to make them a salt-lick, having read that deer liked salt-licks. We didn’t know what a salt-lick looked like, but improvised with an entire canister of Morton’s poured all over the front steps. That’s what our parents got for signing us up for National Geographic youth science books.
posted by steph on 12-15-2008 at 7:33 pm
In elementary school, we had to sing a song called “Pablo, The Mexican Reindeer:”
“When Santa goes to Mexico
He takes a reindeer named Pablo
Pablo can sing and dance and play
He leads the reindeer all the way…”
posted by arfies on 12-17-2008 at 3:19 am
Bonne Noel 2009. Be happy constantly on earth and grateful to Him who always prompty rescue us at the last moment!
posted by Wow Billa on 11-19-2009 at 12:43 am