Christmas has quite a long and colored history. Each Christmas
tradition started somewhere. Learn a possible Christmas History of Santa's
Sleigh and Reindeer.
The first written story about the
legend of Santa Claus and his eight reindeer was "A Visit from St. Nicholas,"
penned by Clement C. Moore in 1823. The legend is taken from Russian stories of
Father Frost arriving in villages in a sled drawn by reindeer.
The legend also existed in Holland,
where children believed St. Nicholas would ride through the air, checking on
children who misbehaved. The ninth reindeer, Rudolph, did not come along until
1939, in a story by Robert L. May.
The legend of the flying reindeer most
likely originated with Clement Clarke Moore’s ‘Twas the Night Before
Christmas’. It was written in the early nineteenth century, as a gift
for his children, and if not for a sneaky friend who secretly sent a copy
to a local newspaper, it may have remained a private family possession.
Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comit,
Cupid, Donner, and Blitzen were later joined by Rudolph in 1939. It
wasn’t a foggy Christmas Eve that brought them together, but an
advertising copywriter from Montgomery Ward department store, named Robert
May.
The story goes, that the store was
looking for a novelty for the department store Santa to distribute to
parents and children. Denver Gillen, an artist and friend of Robert May
made the first drawings of the ‘red-nosed’ reindeer after spending an
afternoon at the zoo.
After considering scores of names for
his new creation, May took the advice of his 4-year old daughter and
settled on Rudolph.
In the first year of distribution,
1939, 2.4 million “Rudolph” booklets were handed out in Montgomery Ward
stores. They continued this tradition, albeit sporadically, until 1947
when a another friend of May’s, Johnny Marks, put the poem to music.
After many artists passed on the opportunity, Gene Autry agreed and
recorded the song in 1949. Since his hit release of “Rudolph, the
Red-Nosed Reindeer, more than 300 different recordings have been made,
and more than eighty million records sold. Gene Autry’s rendition is the
third best-selling record of all time, falling only to Bing Crosby’s
“White Christmas” at number 2, and Elton John’s “Candle in the Wind ‘97”
at number 1.
