Eight Little Reindeer: A Song History
"Eight Little Reindeer" is a Christmas song with music and words by Mike Anderson, found in his Hugo's Sing-A-Long Dulcimer Christmas Songbook, published by Fingers Of Steel.[1] The book sets well-known carols beside children's songs as lead sheets with lyrics and chord symbols in DAD tuning, and this is one of three songs that are also given in standard notation.[1] Anderson, a Midwestern folk entertainer well known in central Illinois, hosted a national award-winning children's television show, founded the New Salem Storytelling Festival, and was honored as an outstanding Illinois educator while teaching third grade.[2]
Allen & Ginter, Reindeer, from Quadrupeds series (N41) for Allen & Ginter Cigarettes, commercial color lithograph, 1890. A wild reindeer rather than one of Santa's team, shown in fun; it has no connection to the song.
The sources consulted here do not say when Anderson wrote the song.[1][2] Santa's team of eight reindeer was named in the poem "A Visit from St. Nicholas," first printed without a byline in the Troy Sentinel on December 23, 1823, and Christmas tradition has kept those names, with small changes in spelling, ever since.[3][4] Who wrote the poem is disputed: Clement Clarke Moore included it in his own collection in 1844, but Henry Livingston Jr.'s family later put him forward as the author, and the question remains unsettled.[3][4]
Browse more tunes like this: Christmas Dulcimer Tab
Sources
- Fingers Of Steel: "Mike Anderson, Hugo's Sing-A-Long Dulcimer Christmas Songbook".
- DulcimerDownloads: "Mike Anderson".
- Britannica: "A Visit from St. Nicholas".
- New York State Library: "December 2015 Exhibit: A Visit from St. Nicholas".
- Image: Allen & Ginter, Reindeer, from Quadrupeds series (N41) for Allen & Ginter Cigarettes, commercial color lithograph, 1890. The Metropolitan Museum of Art.