Rudolph, the red-nosed reindeer is probably the most admired reindeers of all the Santa’s nine flying reindeers due to his irrefutable assonant allure. May be, it’s rather tough to find out any other parallel appeal for the other reindeers Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Donner and Blitzen that were described in the song.
“Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” is a famous poem in the form of a story, which was first published in 1939 by Montgomery Ward Department Stores. The departmental store sold around 2.4 million copies of the story in its first print. Robert L. Mary, in-charge of marketing and advertising department was the original writer of the story. In fact, the narration of the gleaming red-nosed reindeer was so lucid that it immediately made the fairy-tale of Rudolph as the top-hit story. Second print of the story in the same year sold around 3.5 million copies. In 1949, Gene Autry sang the musical version of the legend, which has now become second most popular Christmas song, after ‘White Christmas‘. Gene Autry could probably be considered as the greatest contributor for the widespread recognition of red-nosed reindeer.
With the translation of the song in more than 20 languages and animated television movie derived from the story, Rudolph, the red-nosed reindeer has become a world famous character. The story illustrates that the ninth reindeer steers Santa’s sleigh with his glowing nose. The subject of flying reindeers pulling Santa’s sleigh in the sky has been delved into great details by the researchers. Nevertheless, it has also been widely contemplated as a practical joke by many people all over the world.
Apart from the enchanting rhymes, the story of Rudolph delivers few excellent moral lessons. The fairy-tale narrates that Rudolph was often criticized and ridiculed by other reindeers due to his glowing red nose. The story goes on to state that once on a smoggy night, Santa was worried if he could distribute Christmas gifts all around the world and at that time spotted Rudolph. Santa at once requested Rudolph to steer his Sleigh in the murky night with his shiny red nose. Rudolph unhesitatingly guided Santa by lighting the path of the Sleigh in the dark night with his glowing red nose. Rest is history.
With Santa’s use of red-nosed reindeer to pull his sleigh, Rudolph’s apparently off-putting characteristic turned into a blessing. Besides, the moral of the story implies that one should never be strayed away regardless of what others say about him or her, as the mind-set of people can turn the sides easily.
Although Rudolph is believed to be the son of Donner (or Donder), one of the eight original reindeers, people still ponder over the question – where did Rudolph hailed from. Different websites have discussed this issue in different perspectives. Snopes.com narrates that Rudolph was spotted by Santa in a remote village while already on his voyage to distribute the gifts on the eve of Christmas. Another website, Wikipedia.com mentions that Robbie, a son of Rudolph is the tenth reindeer, which was presented in the animated movie produced by British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC).
Well-known poem ‘Twas The Night Before Christmas’ originally introduced the notion of Rudolph pulling Santa’s Sleigh. The poetic story recites that St. Nicholas, who is Santa gathers all the eight reindeers below the chimney of a house, while he was loading the toys to be carried on a sack on his back.