<P> In the lyrics, a grandmother is celebrating at a Christmas Eve party with her family when, while off her medication and drunk on spiked eggnog, she staggers outside into a snowstorm against the pleas of everyone in the room . She is found the next day, trampled; Santa Claus and his reindeer are determined to be the culprit when "incriminating Claus marks" are found on Grandma's back . The second and third verses describe the Christmas gathering where "all the family's dressed in black" and the family wonders if all the Christmas gifts they bought for her should be returned (the consensus is a firm yes). Christmas dinner otherwise goes on as normal, with a centerpiece of roast goose, figgy pudding for dessert, and "blue and silver candles" to match Grandma's hairpiece; the newly widowed Grandpa seems completely unfazed by his wife's demise and spends the holiday "watching football, drinking beer and playing cards with Cousin Mel" (who, while not stated as such in the lyrics, is an attractive and much younger woman in the music video and animated film). The upshot is a warning to the listener to be aware, because "a man who drives a sleigh and plays with elves" should have never received a driver's license . </P> <P> In the music video, in which Elmo plays both Grandma and Grandpa while Patsy plays Cousin Mel, Grandma survives the attack and makes a triumphant return through the chimney . </P> <P> According to Brooks, he played the song while sitting in with Elmo and Patsy at the Hyatt Lake Tahoe in December 1978, and after the show they had him make a cassette of the song for them to learn . A year later, they were selling 45s of the song from the stage, with Elmo himself appearing in drag on the album cover as "Grandma". </P> <P> The song was originally self - released in San Francisco by the Shropshires in 1979 on their own record label (on "Elmo' n' Patsy" #2984), with the B - side titled "Christmas". Initial copies appeared on a cream - colored label, with a sketch of a pig clearly visible, at left . Once initial copies had sold out, later - pressed #2984 cream - colored 45 label copies retained the same pig sketch, but decided to both move the sketch, and add the word "Oink", to the top of the 45's label . Meanwhile, the duo's names were moved to the bottom of the label, below the song title . By the early 1980s, the song was becoming a seasonal hit, first on country stations and then on Top 40 stations . Oink Records, still based in Windsor, California, continued distribution of the 45 rpm record in the western U.S., with "Nationwide Sound Distributors" (NSD) of Nashville, Tennessee pressing and distributing the song on its Soundwaves Records in the eastern U.S., peaking at #92 on the country singles charts . In 1982, the duo both re-recorded and re-released the song as a single, again as Oink #2984 . But this time, Oink chose to handle all nationwide product distribution themselves, ending the old NSD - Soundwaves agreement . Re-recorded Oink #2984 45 copies appeared on a white label, not a cream - colored label, however . That is the easiest way (aside from listening to the 45 itself) to differentiate between the original, 1979 Oink #2984 recording and its now - much - more familiar, 1982 re-recording . An entire LP, named after their hit song, was also recorded in 1982, and was initially released as Oink #8223 . In 1984, with the song now a big hit nationally, CBS Records was interested in re-issuing both the 1982 Oink 45 re-recording, and the 1982 Oink LP . Soon after, Epic Records acquired the rights to both, from Elmo and Patsy . The Epic #04703 45 opted to replace the Oink 45's B - side, "Christmas", with a track from the LP, ("Percy, the Puny Poinsettia"). Epic's 1984 re-release of the 1982 Oink LP was a straight re-issue, on Epic #39931 . By the end of 1984, it was reported that sales of "Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer" were, by record label: Oink: 50,000 45s sold; Soundwaves: 175,000 45s sold; Epic: 150,000 45s sold and 90,000 LPs sold . The Epic Records version charted at #64 on the country charts in 1998 and #48 in 1999 . </P>

When was the song grandma got run over by a reindeer written