‘Twas the night before Christmas, and all through the house, Mommy was getting a little freaked out during Daddy’s reading of the popular story with the same name…

Did you know that in some versions of “The Night Before Christmas”, the reindeer usually known as “Donner” is instead called “Donder”????!?! Donder!?!?!

For a moment there I thought that for my entire life, I’d been hearing it wrong (that, or no more egg nog for me).

But Phew! Thank goodness for Google:

“‘Twas the Night Before Christmas was supposedly written by Clement Clarke Moore in 1823. However recently in 2000 an English professor has proved that the original Christmas rhyme was written by Major Henry Livingston, Jr. (1748-1828) in 1807 and called – Account of a Visit from St. Nicholas. Moore got credited with the nursery rhyme after an acquaintance published it in a newspaper. Over the years he made many alterations to it, which explains why there are various spellings of the reindeer names – Donner means thunder in German and Donder means thunder in Dutch.”

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!

I think I hear ol’ Thunder & gang on the roof now!…