Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer

Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer

The idea that Santa Claus drives a sleigh pulled by flying reindeer is usually credited to Clement C. Moore (1779-1863). In 1822 Moore wrote a poem for children entitled 'A Visit from Saint Nicholas'. The poem was officially published in 1844 and was the main reason for the establishment of Santa Claus in the United States. In the poem Moore refers to Santa's toy filled sleigh being pulled by eight flying reindeer. He named the reindeer Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Donder (meaning 'thunder' in Dutch) and Blitzen (meaning 'lightning' in German).

In 1939 Robert L May, a department store worker at Montgomery Ward, wrote a poem entitled 'Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer'. The store printed the poem and distributed it to children as a sales gimmick. In 1949 a friend of May's named Jonny Marks composed a song based on the story told in the poem. The song with the same name as the poem 'Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer' was instantly popular and remains so today. Many recordings of the song have been made. His story has been told in 25 different languages at least and has even been made into a network television special...

Lyrics to the Song
You know Dasher and Dancer
And Prancer and Vixen,
Comet and Cupid
And Donder and Blitzen,
But do you recall
The most famous reindeer of all?

Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer
Had a very shiny nose
And if you ever saw it
You would even say it glows

All of the other reindeer
Used to laugh and call him names
They never let poor Rudolph
Join in any reindeer games

Then one foggy Christmas Eve
Santa came to say
"Rudolph, with your nose so bright,
Won't you guide my sleigh tonight?"

Then all the reindeer loved him
As they shouted out with glee:
Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer,
You'll go down in history!