The Donner situation -- um -- too soon?
Origin of Rudolph the Red-Nosed -- Monkey (Montgomery) Wards around 1948 made it up. They
sold kids books of it with the sheet music for the song inside (the back or front cover, or both covers, I think)....and I think they
sold toy stuffed Rudolphs, and the song was played by many radio stations, very popular... I had one of the original books for years. It was an "original" marketing ploy by Wards to draw in customers. Worked very well.
Silly song--ever known someone you despise to make it good? Do you then feel all warm and fuzzy toward them, or do you then say, grouching, "He probably got real close to Santa because he was always just a stupid red-nosed reindeer...nothing special! Red-noser!" (Sour grapes, envy, and all that?)
By the way, I was actually glad to see it pointed out that it ought to be Donder, because as a once-upon-a-time translator in Germany (1975), that "Donner" never made any actual sense to me.