The thought of his reindeer-driven slay gracefully flying and jingling from rooftop to rooftop is enough to get anyone excited for Christmas. But how did these mystical creatures that we know and love come to be?

A Singular Reindeer?

The first time that St. Nick was associated with the reindeer was all the way back in 1821 in a children’s illustrated poem titled "Old Santeclaus with Much Delight". This poem played a huge part in defining the history of the Santa we know and love today - including the introduction of him arriving on Christmas Eve and his cold Northern heritage. Unfortunately, the name of this reindeer was never stated in the ground-breaking poem. Luckily more reindeer came along as we can only imagine that pulling the sleigh alone was quite the struggle for this poor guy!

The 8 Reindeer We Know and Love

A mere two years later in 1823, a poem was released by Clement C. Moore which increased Santa’s sleigh’s horse reindeer-power eight-fold. The poem entitled "A Visit from St. Nicholas" features a verse introducing the 8 reindeer that are now synonymous with ol’ Kris Kringle:

"Now, Dasher! Now, Dancer! Now, Prancer, and Vixen! "On, Comet! On, Cupid! On, Dunder and Blixem!”

Now, we are sure you may be questioning the final two from this excerpt? This is actually due to a reprint by Edmund Clarence Stedman who translated the original Dutch spelling of "Dunder and Blixem" to German, "Donner and Blitzen", which became accepted as the new standard for naming the original 8 reindeer.

The New Reindeer on the Block

Last but not least, we have the final addition to Santa’s flying entourage. Everyone's favourite sleigh-guiding, red-nosed reindeer - Rudolf! Rudolf wasn’t introduced until 1939 when he was featured in a children's book for the Montgomery Ward department store written by Robert L May. The story starts off on a sad note with Rudolf being considered a social outcast due to his glowing red-nose but finishes on a high with Santa asking Rudolf to light the way for his sleigh on a foggy Christmas Eve. Rudolf luckily accepted the challenge and has been recognised as Santa’s 9th reindeer ever since.