Santa Claus's Reindeer - Additional Reindeer

Additional Reindeer

Several literature, television, film and music pieces have made references to other reindeer. In many cases, these are explicitly related to other reindeer already in the fleet; however, these portrayals are usually never deemed as official and are constantly being rewritten and altered. The only case in which an addition to the team devised by another was in the case of the famous Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer by Robert L. May, gaining an iconic and traditional status.

• The 1964 Rudolph special features Fireball as one of several reindeer trying out for the sleigh team. Fireball is the son of Blitzen; another reindeer is said to be the son of Dasher and struggles at flying, along with two other reindeer fawns of the same age. A young fawn named Clarice is also featured and eventually becomes Rudolph's love interest. Donner is portrayed as Rudolph's father.
• The 1979 feature film, Rudolph and Frosty's Christmas in July, features an antagonist reindeer named Scratcher.
• "Lightning", from a 1996 Sesame Street Christmas special, "Elmo Saves Christmas", is a reindeer-in-training.
• The 1998 feature film, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer: The Movie, introduces Mitzi as Rudolph's mother and Blitzen's wife (as opposed to the Rankin-Bass version, wherein Donner is Rudolph's father). It also features two other reindeer named Zoey and Arrow.
• In the 1999 TV special Robbie the Reindeer, the eponymous Robbie is obstensibly assumed to be the son of Rudolph. His special feature is his nose, which has supernatural powers that allow him to jump and fly farther and faster than most reindeer.
• Chet is a young reindeer in training who is introduced in the 2002 feature film, The Santa Clause 2.
• The 2002 South Park Christmas special, "Red Sleigh Down", introduces an entirely new fleet of reindeer after the traditional reindeer are killed, when the sleigh is shot down as Santa tries to bring Christmas to Iraq. The main characters rescue him by using the alternative reindeer named: Steven, Fluffy, Horace, Chantel, Skippy, Rainbow, Patches and Montel.
• In the 2006 TV special Holidaze: The Christmas That Almost Didn't Happen, Rusty is said to be Rudolph's brother. Unlike the other reindeer, Rusty is flightless, so instead assists Santa and the other reindeer from air traffic control.
• The TV series, My Friends Tigger & Pooh, introduced a special Super Sleuth Christmas Movie in 2007 that included Holly, a young reindeer fawn.
• The 2008 television special, The Flight Before Christmas, features Nico, Prancer's illegitimate child from a one-night stand with a regular reindeer. The young Nico goes to the North Pole to seek his father.
• Thrasher is a top-secret, over-sized reindeer introduced in the 2009 Disney special Prep and Landing. He leads the titular "prep and landing" team of elves in a sleigh ahead of Santa Claus' main sled.
• L. Frank Baum's 1902 story The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus includes a list of ten reindeer, none of whom match the names of the versions found in "A Visit from St. Nicholas." Flossie and Glossie are Santa's principal reindeer in Baum's story. Claus gathers eight more reindeer, named in rhyming pairs: Racer, Pacer, Fearless, Peerless, Ready, Steady, Feckless, and Speckless.
• Olive, from a 1997 children's book and 1999 television special entitled Olive, the Other Reindeer, is not a reindeer but a dog. She mistook a news report regarding the plight of Blitzen as a "help wanted" ad and heads to the North Pole, where she fills in for him for the year.
• The comic strip Over the Hedge (which was made into a 2006 film), added a character named Ralph, the Infrared Nosed Reindeer, who is Rudolph's brother and has a nose that emits infrared heat.
• In the song "¿Dónde Está Santa Claus?", recorded by Augie Rios in 1958, two other reindeer are named in the verse that goes: "I hope he won't forget to crack his castanet, and to his reindeer say: On Pancho (a possible Spanish approximation of Prancer), on Vixen, on Pedro, on Blitzen, Ole, Ole, Ole!"
• In the 1966 animated television special Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas!, the Grinch disguises his dog Max as a reindeer.
• Bob Dylan's 2009 version of "Must Be Santa" has a line at the end of the song which replaces the reindeer with former Presidents of the United States: "Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon... Carter, Reagan, Bush and Clinton."