SANTA'S REINDEERS

Some of Santa's reindeers have had some name changes over the years.  Not sure whether they have actually made it legal by deed of poll or not.  However, this is what is supposed to have happened.

Santa's reindeers are called Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Donner/Donder, Blitzen, and Rudolph. Apart from Rudolph, the eight reindeers got their name from the "The Night Before Christmas by Clement C. Moor.  Rudolph on the other hand didn't come into being until Johnny Marks wrote the popular song Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer which was recorded by Gene Autrey in 1949. 

People always get confused by poor old Donder and Blitzen.  By the time Johnny Marks wrote "Rudolph," it was ''Donner'' and ''Blitzen'' (possibly because ''Donder'' wasn't as easily incorporated into the song as Donner.

It has been said that the  original Dutch version of the poem called them "Dunder" and Blixem.  Dunder means "thunder" and Blixem, means "lightning". In reprints of the poem they were then called by the German terminology which was Donder and Blixen, then to Blitzen.

Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer       

Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer
Had a very shiny nose.
And if you ever saw him,
You would even say it glows.
All of the other reindeer
Used to laugh and call him names.
They never let poor Rudolph
Play 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!"