Well, it’s Christmas eve. And like many others today, we’ve been listening to quite a few Christmas songs.
One of the songs I’ve heard a few times on the radio this year is “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer”. It’s a classic, especially among children. And something I think many children learned with this song was the “echo” that came after each line.
Growing up in Buffalo, my sisters and I learned one version of it. When we moved to NJ, we discovered that my new friends had learned different echos back in the day.
I’m curious what lyrics you use(or used to use). I’m including what I know (in parenthesis), and you can comment with your differences. The ones I usually hear differently I’ll bold:
Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (reindeer)
Had a very shiny nose (like a light bulb)
And if you ever saw it (saw it)
You would even say it glows (like a light bulb)
All of the other reindeer (reindeer)
Used to laugh and call him names (like Pinocchio)
They never let poor Rudolph (Rudolph)
Join in any reindeer-games (like Monopoly)
Then one foggy Christmas Eve
Santa came to say,
“Rudolph with your nose so bright
Won’t you guide my sleigh tonight?”
Then how the reindeer loved him (loved him)
As they shouted out with glee, (with glee!)
“Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer, (reindeer)
“You’ll go down in history!” (like George Washington!)
How different are your lyrics, and what are they? And where did you grow up? I’m pretty sure it varies by region, though it could vary by elementary school or music teacher, for all I know.
Anyway, just thought this would be fun. Merry Christmas!
Graduated Learning: Life after College 
We did “like a flashlight” and “like Columbus”
Merry Christmas, Steph!
LikeLike
Ours was almost the same, but Rudolph would go down in history “like Columbus!”
LikeLike
lol….good times.
The only differing parts were “like toothpaste” instead of “with glee”, and “like Columbus” at the end! Oh, and I grew up in South Florida.
LikeLike
Ours were almost the same too. We did ‘hee hee hee’ instead of ‘with glee’, and sometimes we’d do ‘like hopscotch’ instead of ‘like Monopoly’. For who would go down in history, we’d do ‘like Elvis Presley’ (sung appropriately dramatically). Other people I knew would do different people, but I never heard George Washington.
Of course, I grew up in New Zealand!
LikeLike
Ours was
Then one foggy Christmas Eve
Santa came to say( Ho Ho Ho)
Rudolf with your nose so bright
Won’t you guide my sleigh tonight(Sure)
LikeLike
Santa came to say, (Ho Ho Ho)
As they shouted out with glee, (Yipee!)
“You’ll go down in history!” (like the president)
Merry Christmas Steph!
LikeLike
Ditto on Columbus! I grew up all over. Not sure where I learned this song… I’ll ask my brother.
LikeLike
I always sang “like Dumbo” for names, “like football” for games and ” like Lincoln” for history. I grew up in NJ but you already know that. Happy Holidays!
LikeLike
We did all of those as well. I am from the Dayton, OH area. My nieces live an hour away though, at 2 different cities and they both sing it close to the way the author sings it.
LikeLike
I forgot all about the echoes! Thanks for reminding me! 🙂
LikeLike
Santa came to say (in his underwear)
LikeLike
Love this! I hadn’t realized that the echos in this song were different in different places! I’ve never heard any of the other variations. I grew up in the Saratoga area of NY, about 5 hours east of Buffalo. My version of the song is very similar but with two distinct differences.
Then one foggy Christmas Eve
Santa came to say, (want a beer?)
“Rudolph with your nose so bright
Won’t you guide my sleigh tonight?”
Then how the reindeer loved him (loved him)
As they shouted out with glee, (yippee!)
LikeLike
When it goes ‘then one foggy Christmas Eve Santa came to say’ me and my friends go ‘in his underwear’
LikeLike
Ours was Santa came to say (in his underwear).
LikeLike
Just stumbled across this as my wife and I were laughing at how different our versions were, and I started searching for some history of the added lyrics. She pretty much agreed with the version published here. She grew up in New England.
I’m a Mid-Atlantic kid, having grown up in Maryland. Here is the version I learned (my brother confirmed with me as well).
Rudolph the red nosed reindeer (reindeer)
Had a very shiny nose (??)
And if you ever saw it (saw it)
You would even say it glows (like a lightbulb!)
All of the other reindeer (reindeer)
Used to laugh and call him names (like “dumbo!”)
They never let poor Rudolph (Rudolph)
Join in any reindeer games (like football!)
Then one foggy Christmas Eve
Santa came to say,
“Rudolph with your nose so bright
Won’t you guide my sleigh tonight?”
Then how the reindeer loved him (loved him)
And they shouted out with glee, (with glee!)
“Rudolph the red nosed reindeer (reindeer)
You’ll go down in history” (like me!)
I always assumed the other reindeer shouted out with glee, “…You’ll go down in history!” This makes the “like me!” response make sense, as they other reindeer are referring to themselves (“like me!”) — and in fact they did go down in history like Rudy did. After all, they’re all mentioned in the song too!
LikeLike
Im from Bristol, Tn and most of what u have is what we learned down here. The only differences are instead of repeating like a light bulb we used “like a flashlight” for one and “light bulb” for the second. And instead of “with glee” we sang “yipee”.
LikeLike
Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (reindeer)
Had a very shiny nose (like a light bulb)
And if you ever saw it (saw it)
You would even say it glows (like a flashlight)
All of the other reindeer (reindeer)
Used to laugh and call him names (like Pinocchio)
They never let poor Rudolph (Rudolph)
Join in any reindeer-games (like Monopoly)
Then one foggy Christmas Eve
Santa came to say, (in his underwear)
“Rudolph with your nose so bright
Won’t you guide my sleigh tonight?”
Then how the reindeer loved him (loved him)
As they shouted out with glee, (yippee!)
“Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer, (reindeer)
“You’ll go down in his-to-ry!” (like George Washington!)
Long Island,NY
LikeLike
I am trying to figure out if we, as kids, said “light bulb” twice. I think so but it sounds odd, now that I sing it. Anyway, I grew up in the bay area (San Francisco, CA) in the early 90s, and we basically said the same thing that you have except “Santa came to say, (Ho,hoho)” and “shouted out with gless (yipee)”. We too ended it with George Washington.
LikeLike
[…] time for a silly post. Ten years ago I wrote what is my most viewed post, where I discussed how different people learned different “echoes” for Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. Somehow it got on the front page of Google results when you search for lyrics with echoes. Go […]
LikeLike