Pablo, the Reindeer from Mexico

Without him, Santa would not know if it's snowing?

If you want to start some festive conversation at next year’s holiday party, ask someone how many reindeer Santa has pulling his sleigh. Traditionalists will answer eight, referring to Santa’s reindeer from The Night Before Christmas (Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Donner, and Blitzen) while most people will say it’s nine, with Rudolph and his red nose up front. Younger attendees may come up with a tenth, Olive, from the late 90s TV special Olive, the Other Reindeer. Only the most hardcore fans of the holiday will come up with an eleventh: Pablo, the Reindeer from Mexico.

I love to sing — not modern radio hits, but jingles from forgotten television commercials, bits of songs from my childhood, and, quite often, made up nonsense. The first time I belted out a few lines from “Pablo, the Reindeer from Mexico,” it took quite a bit of convincing for my wife to believe it was not something I had made up. After singing an entire verse, she became convinced. “That has to be a real song,” she said. “It’s too good to be one of your made up ditties.”

Wow. Way to kill the holiday cheer.

Anyway, yes, “Pablo the Reindeer from Mexico” was a real song. When I was in elementary school we used to sing all sorts of songs in music class, and this was one we sang for many years around the holidays. The oldest recording I can find of the song is from George Lovering’s album Singin’ Through the Seasons, published in 1968 by Activity Records, Inc. I’ve never been able to track down a physical or digital copy of that album and I doubt that it was the version we sang along to in elementary school, but I would still love to hear it someday.

So who is Pablo, and why did Santa need yet another reindeer to pull his sleigh? All is explained within the song’s lyrics. Pablo is described as a pretty fun reindeer who likes to “sing and dance and sway” and later we learn he can do the “Cha-Cha-Cha,” but in a world where reindeer can speak and fly, these don’t seem to be traits worthy of leading Santa’s sled.

But Pablo has two additional skills. First, it is explained that “Santa can’t speak the Espanol, so he depends on ‘ol Pablo.” This seems questionable at best. For hundreds of years, Santa has been visiting millions of homes in every country in the world in a single night and language has never been a barrier. Plus, in the 1947 Christmas classic Miracle on 34th Street, it is established that Santa speaks every language. When a recently adopted German orphan is brought to visit Santa, Kris Kringle is able to fluently converse with the girl in German and even sings a German Christmas carol with her. It is difficult to believe Santa can speak and even sing in every other language and yet somehow not know “the Espanol.”

As the song continues we learn about two more skills Pablo possesses. Without Pablo, according to the lyrics, Santa would “not know where he’s going,” and “not know if it’s snowing (south of the border)”. This bit is harder to swallow than Grandma’s dry gingerbread cookies. The thought that Santa would not know where he’s going without a tour guide from Mexico is absurd. And, why would Santa even care if it were snowing in Mexico? Santa lives in the North Pole, the snowiest place on the planet! He delivers gifts to children in Minnesota, and North Dakota, and remote portions of Sweden! I’m starting to feel like someone is pulling my hoof with all this Pablo nonsense.

Despite all of these facts, it’s tough not to love Pablo. Toward the end of the song we learn he “makes all the children laugh ha ha” and that when he arrives, “all the muchachos shout ole!” Any reindeer that delivers that much joy can’t be all bad. It’s possible that Pablo takes over for Rudolph when Santa delivers presents south of the border and gives our red-nosed friend a break. Maybe this happens while the rest of us are fast asleep with visions of sugarplums dancing in our heads, which is why we never hear about Pablo. I’ll allow it.

While I’ve yet to track down the original recording, the PS22 Chorus uploaded their version of “Pablo the Reindeer” and it is exactly how I remember singing it in elementary school. The song is less than two minutes long, and I hope you enjoy it. Learnt he words and next year you can impress your friends and family with knowledge of Santa’s eleventh reindeer, Pablo the Reindeer from Mexico.