Paul Sassone

About 350 shopping days — give or take — until Christmas.

What do you think, is it too soon to write about Christmas?

I know, you haven’t yet paid for the last Christmas. But, important new information has reached me on a precious holiday tradition that could save you next Christmas from the argument my family had during last Christmas.

For some reason we had started naming Santa Claus’ reindeer.

I rattled off — Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Donner and Blitzen.

Not so, someone said. You missed one. His name is Donder, not Donner.

Not so yourself, I smoothly corrected in my most professorially pedantic manner.  The names are German. Donner means thunder. Blitzen means lightning. It’s a parallel pairing.

The person I had corrected pointed to a sculpture on the table of Santa and his reindeer. Each reindeer had a name under it — Donder, not Donner.

Was I wrong? How can that be?

Next day I did some research just to prove I was right, though I knew I was. Results — as they say — were mixed.

The most famous reference to Santa’s reindeer is in the 19th Century poem, “A Visit From St. Nicholas,” by Clement Clarke Moore.

The reindeer are named in this famous passage:

“Now, Dasher! now, Dancer! now, Prancer and Vixen!! On, Comet! on, Cupid! on, Donder and Blitzen!”

But, the initial appearance of the poem was in an upstate New York newspaper, the Troy Sentinel, on Dec.23, 1823, in which two reindeer were called Dunder and Blixem.

This made sense because of the large Dutch population in New York at that time.

Dunder and Blitzem — thunder and lightning — was a common expression in that area. So, we now had Donder and Dunder.

Then along came Robert L. May and and Johnny Marks, the writers, respectively, of the 1939 poem and subsequent song, “Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer,” which begins:

“You know Dasher and Dancer and Prancer and Vixen, Comet and Cupid and
Donner and Blitzen …”

So, now we have Dunder, Donder and Donner. Which is correct?

The New York Times on Dec. 23, 1906 reprinted Moore’s poem and changed Donder to Donner. Why the New York Times thought German was better than Dutch I can’t tell you.

So, what is that dratted reindeer’s correct name?

Most editions of Moore’s poem use Donder. So, that’s a solid score for Donder.

For me, though, I learned my reindeer names from Rudolph as sung by Gene Autry. For me, it’s Donner.

But I no longer claim that is the only correct name.

I hope this information may help make your next Christmas free from controversy.

By the way, the first known written mention of Santa’s reindeer is in the 1821 poem, “A New Year’s Present,” by William Gilley.

It’s such a charming reference, I thought I’d share it with you:

“Old Santeclaus with much delight

His reindeer draws this frosty night.

O’er chimney tops, and tracks of snow,

To bring his yearly gifts to you.”

At the risk of being premature — Merry Christmas.

–Be careful when you participate in reindeer name games–