The legend of Santa Claus goes way back, and branches off in many directions. But he has only used reindeer to pull his sleigh full of toys for the past 200 years or so...
The tradition become part of our folklore with the publication of A Visit from St. Nicholas by Clement C. Moore in 1823 (better known today as "It Was the Night Before Christmas"). This poem named the standard eight tiny reindeer. They were named Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Dunder, and Blixen. In the 1823 newspaper version of the poem, the spelling Blixem was used, although it was changed to Blitzen when Moore published the poem under his own name. The spelling of the original Dunder was changed to Donder and then to Donner in some modern versions.
