A name like Olive is not one of Santa’s traditional reindeer. Modern lists of Santa’s team usually include Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Donner, Blitzen, and Rudolph as the canonical reindeer.
Santa’s usual reindeer
Most references agree that Santa is recognized today as having nine main reindeer:
- Dasher
- Dancer
- Prancer
- Vixen
- Comet
- Cupid
- Donner
- Blitzen
- Rudolph
These names trace back mainly to the 1823 poem often known as “’Twas the Night Before Christmas” (for the original eight) plus the later addition of Rudolph in the 20th century.
Names that are not reindeer
Several other names sometimes get mistaken for reindeer but are not part of the standard list. For example, “Olive” arose from people mishearing the lyric “all of the other reindeer” as “Olive, the other reindeer,” and characters like Clarice, Cookie, Peppermint, or Olive are occasionally added in newer stories and products but are not in the core canonical team.
