Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer

You know Dasher and Dancer
And Prancer and Vixen,
Comet and Cupid
And Donner and Blitzen.
But do you recall
The most famous reindeer of all?

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
join 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.

Rudolph was created as a poem by Robert L May in 1939 as part of his job at Montgomery Ward. It was put to music by Johnny Marks in 1948 and initially performed by Harry Brannon, before the well-known performance by Gene Autry.

Here’s the Gene Autry performance from YouTube: