For 30 years now, the Christmas holiday has included the presence of one very strange novelty song, “Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer.” During the early 1980s, it was nearly impossible to avoid the recording by Elmo & Patsy on pop and country radio stations. It’s sold a million copies, it’s been made into an animated TV movie, and it’s become one of the most polarizing yuletide traditions. People love it, or they hate it. Either way, they can lay the inspiration at the feet of Merle Haggard.

Not that Merle wrote it. His best-known holiday song is “If We Make It Through December,” which released in 1973. The same year, he’d also penned a song called “Grandma’s Homemade Christmas Card,” which actually inspired “Grandma Got Run Over.”

“In [‘Grandma’s Homemade Christmas Card’], his grandma didn’t die, but listening to the song, I thought she was going to,” “Grandma Got Run Over” songwriter Randy Brooks told The Dallas Morning News. “Country music featured so many songs like that — two verses that get you to fall in love with the character, and then ‘kill ‘em!’ I thought it would be better to kill them in the first line, and then if you came up with three verses and a chorus, you’d have something. So I came up with the first line, and there was no looking back.”

Elmo & Patsy found it by accident. They were performing in Lake Tahoe in 1978, and Randy’s band was stuck there overnight while the bus was in the shop. Elmo called Randy up on stage during his show, and an audience member requested “Grandma.” Elmo just had to record it, and in short order, it provided a source of residual income for both Elmo and Randy.

“I was totally surprised when it became a hit, and five years in I was still surprised,” Randy said. “It was written to tell a joke, kind of, and once you’ve heard a joke, you know the punch line. But I didn’t anticipate the way kids would like the song. And with new kids always coming along, that keeps the popularity high.”

Not so high that he can make songwriting his primary job. Randy works for American Airlines in Dallas, but the income from “Grandma” is a nice bonus every year.

You can blame Merle Haggard for “Grandma.” Randy is still thanking him.

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