Have we been singing Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer wrong?

There's a reason why Millennials and Gen Z sing different lyrics in the blanks. 

It's the Christmas classic that all of us grew up with and is on repeat when our own little ones come along. But have you noticed that we're all singing Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer a little differently these days? 

The differing lyrics were recently spotted by kid's indie artist, Darelle London, who said she noticed the words people sing in the blanks of the song change according to when you were born. 

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Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer is a classic Christmas song. Image: Supplied

⁠How do you sing Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer? 

Darelle sparked a conversation about the classic Christmas song after asking her followers what they sing. 

“I have a question for Millennials: you know when we were growing up and we would sing 'Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer’ and we would add the little ‘like a light bulb!’...  those little things in-between the lines," she began her post. 

"So at the end, in my school, we would say ‘You’ll go down in history like...’. There’s two options: ‘like the Blue Jays!’ or ‘like the Yellow Pages!’”

But after speaking to her husband, the artist realised that not everyone has been singing the same lyrics. ⁠

“I was recently talking to my husband about this... his school didn’t say that!”⁠ she said, shocked. 

What words you sing in the blanks depends on when you were born. Image: Supplied

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Rudolph lyrics exposed

Before we move on, let's go through the song in question. The reliable web gives us these official lyrics: 

Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, had a very shiny nose

And if you ever saw it, you would even say it glows

All of the other reindeer, used to laugh and call him names

They never let poor Rudolph, join in any reindeer games

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, as they shouted out with glee: "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, you'll go down in history"

Now, carolers would fill in some blanks of the song with extra shout-outs.

I went on the hunt to see who is singing what, and as it turns out, not only is Darelle correct in saying that people are singing different lyrics, what they are singing is (hilariously) typical of their generation. 

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Millennials and Gen Z are singing the Christmas classic differently

Scrolling through the comments and chatting to Aussie parents who are very familiar with the tune, it appears as though anyone who grew up in the early 80s and 90s is filling in the blanks with the following lyrics: 

Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, had a very shiny nose (... like a light bulb)

All of the other reindeer, used to laugh and call him names (... like Pinocchio)

They never let poor Rudolph, join in any reindeer games (... like Monopoly)

And then comes the line that confuses things. 

Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, you'll go down in history (...like ???)

If you hail from Gen X, you'll likely be the one singing "Like the yellow pages." 

If that doesn't ring a bell at all, then you're likely sitting within the millennial bracket and singing "like George Washington" or "like Columbus."

But if you have no clue what I'm talking about when I say there is the added lyric at the end, then you're most definitely Gen Z (who appears to have given up on the extra effort entirely!) 

Of the handful of young Aussies I surveyed for this, all Gen Zers were confused about the bonus words and admitted not only did they not know that there was a line at the end, they also didn't know there were added lines in anything beyond "Like a light bulb". 

Classic. 

Originally published as Have we been singing Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer wrong?