All About Rudolph
and Santa's Other Reindeers
Maybe it's the undeniable
alliterative appeal of Rudolph the Red-Nosed
reindeer that makes him the most known or popular of
all Santa's nine flying reindeers. It certainly
doesn't seem as easy to come up with a similar
catchy description for the others - Dasher, Dancer,
Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Donner and Blitzen -
as named in the song.
The story of Rudolph whose glowing red nose made him
a standout, first appeared in 1939 when Montgomery
Ward department stores distributed about 2.4 million
booklets with the poem in the form of a story about
"Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer." It was written by
Robert L. May, who worked in the store's
advertisement or marketing department, to be used to
attract more people into the store.
When the
booklet was reissued in 1939, sales soared to more
than 3.5
million copies. But it wasn't until a decade later,
in 1949, that the story
really gained immense popularity when Gene Autry
sang a musical version of the fable. As a Christmas
song, it is second only in popularity to 'White
Christmas.'
Rudolph, the ninth reindeer whose lighted nose
guides Santa's sleigh through the night, is now
known worldwide as the song has been translated into
more than 20 different languages and an animated
television movie has also been based on the story.
Rudolph and his noticeable nose have also become the
subject of jokes and sparked more interest in
reindeers which has led to much research into Santa
and the flying reindeers who pull his sleigh through
the sky.
Along with the catchy rhythm of the lyrics,
Rudolph's story is also appealing because of the
moral lessons it contains. As the story goes,
Rudolph was ostracized by the other reindeers, which
laughed and teased him about his shiny red nose. But
on a foggy night, when Santa must have been
concerned that he may not be able to deliver his
Christmas gifts around the world, Santa spotted him
and kindly asked if he would step to the front as
the leader to 'guide my sleigh tonight.' His shiny
red nose would after all be very useful in lighting
the way,
Santa thought. From then on 'all of the other
reindeers loved him," and rightly predicted that he
'would go down in history.'
Among the moral lessons the story can impart is that
an attribute that is perceived as negative or as a
liability can be used for a positive purpose, or,
become an asset. It also makes the point that an
individual should not let the negative behavior of
others define him or her and limit expectations of
what can be achieved. And it also illustrates how
quickly opinions and attitudes about a person can
change.
The question still lingers however of where Rudolph
came from. He is commonly regarded as the son of
Donner (or Donder), one of the original eight
reindeers. But the Snopes.com site rejects this
however, saying that he dwelled in a reindeer
village elsewhere and it was there that he was seen
by Santa who had already started on his Christmas
Eve journey to deliver gifts.
And in a more
modern evolution of the story according to
Wikipedia.com, an animation by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) introduced a son,
named Robbie, of Rudolph. That son has now become
the tenth reindeer.
It's also interesting to note that the idea of
Santa's sleigh being pulled by reindeers was
originated in the poem, 'Twas The Night Before
Christmas.' That poem tells the story of St.
Nicholas, who is Santa, calling his eight tiny
reindeers by their names, as previously mentioned,
just before he came down the chimney of a house to
start filling the stockings from a sack full of toys
he carried on his back.