“A Visit from St. Nicholas” (1823) by Clement Clarke Moore (1779–1863), the urtext of most modern Christmas rituals, lists eight reindeer (in alphabetical order): Blitzen, Comet, Cupid, Dancer, Dasher, Donder, Prancer, and Vixen. Donder became Donner in Ken Darby’s musical score, ’Twas the Night before Christmas (1954).
The most famous, however, was the braindeer of Robert L. May, a copywriter at retail giant Montgomery Ward who cast red-nosed Rudolph in a promotional ballad for Christmas 1939. Two and a half million copies of the story were sold, and another three million when it was reissued seven years later. The sales of the song “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” (1949) by Johnny Marks and first recorded by Gene Autry have since exceeded 160 million.