So, you pride yourself on really getting into the Christmas spirit? The tree is up, full of lights and tinsel, angel/star on top? You've got the plate of cookies and milk for Santa (check). Big pot of mulled wine for you (check). A stack of logs (check) for some Christmas karaoke by the fire (ch…… Wait! If you’re planning on gathering everyone around for your famous Gene Autry impression of Rudolph, the Red-nosed Reindeer, including the intro, you better read this first…(condensed from Wikipedia)
Santa Claus's reindeer are a team of flying reindeer traditionally held to pull his sleigh and help him deliver Christmas gifts. The commonly cited names of the reindeer are based on those used in the 1823 poem A Visit from St. Nicholas, arguably the basis of reindeer's popularity as Christmas symbols, where they are called Dasher and Dancer, Prancer and Vixen, Comet and Cupid, and Dunder and Blixem. Dunder was later changed to Donder and — in other works — Donner, and Blixem was later changed to Blitzen. The subsequent popularity of the Christmas song "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" has led to another reindeer name joining the popular roll-call, but the original eight reindeer are listed in the poem thus...
When, what to my wondering eyes should appear,
But a minature sleigh, and eight tiny rein-deer,
With a little old driver, so lively and quick,
I knew in a moment it must be St. Nick.
More rapid than eagles his coursers they came,
And he whistled, and shouted, and call'd them by name:
"Now! Dasher, now! Dancer, now! Prancer, and Vixen,
"On! Comet, on! Cupid, on! Dunder and Blixem;
In An American Anthology, 1787–1900, Edmund Clarence Stedman reprints the 1844 Clement Clarke Moore version of the poem, including the German spelling of "Donder and Blitzen," rather than the original 1823 version using the Dutch spelling, "Dunder and Blixem." Both phrases translate as "Thunder and Lightning" in English, though German for thunder is now spelled Donner, and the Dutch words would nowadays be spelled Donder and Bliksem.
Yes, those rumors you’ve heard are all true. Donner isn’t the acutal original name of one of Santa’s posse. (that leaves us with only the famous Donner Party to claim the name, and that group was certainly not known for karaoke and other winter festivities!) Well, the important thing is, we now can sing this song with the original traditional name, right? Right? Okay, I'm not crazy about it either, and besides, it's way too late for me to change. Let's stick with Donner.
Photo from Creative Commons (Cathy Stanley-Erickson)
Video by YT member refusetobesilent
This is the original 1949 version with Gene Autry, "The Singing Cowboy" Awesome!
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