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Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer is by far the most popular and well-known of Santa’s reindeer.

The repetitiveness in his name probably accounts for part of the popularity; it would certainly be difficult to have equally catchy descriptions of Santa’s other eight reindeer-sometimes it’d hard to even remember their names. Let’s see, there’s Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Donner and Blitzen.

The story of Rudolph first appeared in 1939 when Montgomery Ward department stores issued a booklet to entice more people to come into the store. For a number of years the store had purchased coloring books to give to the children, but this was during the Great Depression and the company wanted to save money. Robert L. May, an employee who worked in the advertising department of the store, was asked to come up with something to replace the coloring book.

May had a four year old daughter who was quite distressed over the terminal illness of her mother and in an attempt to distract and entertain her he wrote a story in poetry titled “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.” In response to the request for something to replace the coloring books, May put this poem in a booklet and 2.4 million copies were handed out that year. Even with the paper shortages during World War II, by 1946 over 6 million copies  of the popular booklet had been distributed.

Johnny Marks, May’s brother-in-law, was a radio producer who during WW II also produced entertainment shows for soldiers overseas. He was requested to write a song based on the popular poem, “Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer.” Marks honored the request; later the song gained great popularity through the recording by Gene Autry.

Over 30 million copies of the recording have been sold. In addition to recordings, the 1964 television special about Rudolph, narrated by Burl Ives, remains a holiday favorite to this day. Rudolph is a much-loved Christmas image.

Rudolph’s story is fascinating not only because of the captivating tempo of the lyrics but also for the moral lessons it portrays. As you remember, the other reindeer made Rudolph an outcast; they laughed at his shiny red nose. His different look caused the other reindeer to refuse to play with him.

Then came a Christmas Eve when it was so foggy that Santa was afraid he would not be able to make his round to deliver gifts. He approached Rudolph and asked him if he would lead the team and ‘guide my sleigh tonight.’ His shiny red nose was exactly what was needed to light the way for Santa. The story concludes with how much all the other reindeer loved him and how he would go down in history.

There are many moral lessons to be gleaned from Rudolph’s story, not the least of which is that what one may consider to be a negative characteristic, as Rudolph’s red nose was to the other reindeer, can be quickly changed to a positive one.

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By Abby Munroe

As adults we often forget the joy and excitement with which we anticipated Christmas as children. Beginning somewhere around the first of December we would begin the countdown. Oh, the excitement as we helped our parents decorate the tree and inside and outside the house. In some neighborhoods there was friendly, and sometimes maybe not so friendly, competition, to see which family had the best outdoor decorations. Each year they seemed to get more and more elaborate. John Grisham portrayed this so well in his book which was later made into a movie, Skipping Christmas.
And in the midst of it all was awaiting the visit of Santa Claus. Children today still wait for that Christmas Eve visit with great expectation. In my childhood, hours were spent pouring over catalogues looking for just the most perfect and newest toys to ask Santa for. (Yes, that was a number of years ago as I am now a proud grandmother!) Now children have TV and the internet to see what’s available to delight them on Christmas morning. However, even with all the changes in our way of looking for gifts, two things have remained the same-Santa is the one children believe makes wishes for Christmas morning come true and they still write him letters to be sure he knows exactly what they want him to bring.
I remember my daughters sitting at the kitchen table working diligently to write their Santa letters. They were so careful about the penmanship and spelling. They would draw pictures for Santa and tell him cookies and milk would be waiting for him on Christmas Eve. After carefully addressing them to Santa Claus at the North Pole, we would stamp the envelopes and put them in the mailbox. letter from Santa!