“Like George Washington” is how I learned it as a kid.
Never heard the Columbus version until this post. It was always George Washington when I heard it.
The toothpaste was called Gleam and as I mentioned, I don’t recall if we actaully thought the correct lyric was gleam or if it just seemed clever to us. This amusing reminiscence aside, this is one of my all time hated Christmas songs(not to be Grinchy or anything).
Everyone I know has always said Columbus.
Why have I never heard any of this?
So, nobody else says “like Napoleon”? I’m feeling a little lonely over here. 
Even worse, the song says that it’s OK to pick on anyone who’s different, until he’s useful to The Man. I wonder how they’ll treat him the next time Christmas has clear weather.
As in “Go Down Moses.”
the answer is “like George Washington”
Columbus. Never even heard that George Washington shit before this thread.
Columbus, Monopoly & toothpaste. I had no idea other kids sang it any other way. I love the Internet!
“Like the Bismarck”
(Not really, but I encourage the notion, since I’ve always hated the song. :p)
To be honest, I’m a little surprised at all the “never heard of it” answers coming from Americans. I’m just discussing this with a Finnish friend of mine. In the early-to-mid-90’s, she was at the English School in Helsinki, I was at the International School, and we both definitely sang Rudolph with the add-ons. It just seems funny that we’d know about this in northern Europe and someone in the States would have managed to miss it. 
(She had “George Washington”, I had “Columbus”. Although I think I heard “Napoleon” once.)
In my upstate NY elementary school in the 80s, it was always “Like George Washington.” I never heard a version with Columbus or any other name.
I’m more in favor of “Randolf the Bow-legged Cowboy” with the poker games and “with your gun so bright won’t you shoot my wife tonight”.
ETA: Georger Washington and Dumbo in VA in the late 60s and early 70s.
Glows (like a Glow-worm)
Reindeer (like Blitzen)
Names (like Pinocchio)
Games (like Monopoly)
History (like Napoleon)
I think The GW/Columbus versions didn’t make it across the Atlantic.
like George Washington!
Rudolph the red nosed reindeer (reindeer)
Had a very shiny nose
And if you ever saw it (saw it)
You would even say it glows (like a lightbulb)
All of the other reindeer (reindeer)
Used to laugh and call him names (like Pinocchio)
They never let poor Rudolph (Rudolph)
Join in any reindeer games (like monopoly)
Then one foggy Christmas eve
Santa came to say,
“Rudolph with your nose so bright, won’t you guide my sleigh tonight”
Then all of the other reindeer loved him (loved him)
As they shouted out with glee (like toothpase)
“Rudolph the red nosed reindeer, you’ll go down in history!” (like George Washington)
Differences in RED, non-controversial words in GREEN
I learned it this way in the 80s in Michigan.
For me it was “… Like Abe Lincoln!”
I’ve heard the “shouted out with glee” followed by literal shouts of “Glee, glee”.