Then One Foggy Christmas Eve

Sometimes cultural icons become so much a part of our lives that we forget how they started. Maybe we never knew how they started.

Case in point: Santa’s reindeer and Rudolph. We all know the song and the basic story, but do we know how each began?



I looked it up on Google and here are a few things I found:

- According to at least one website, there were eight reindeer in the original story but no Rudolph.

- This website says the extra reindeer was created by an advertising guy at Montgomery Ward Department Stores in 1939 and his brother-in-law wrote the song a few years later. Gene Autry had a big hit with the song in 1949 and the legend took flight, so to speak.

- The same site also says the story changed over the years and in the original, Rudolph’s parents were not embarrassed by his red nose.

- Rollo and Reginald were also considered as names for the character, according to this site. Hmm, Reginald the Red Nosed Reindeer? I think not.

- And this site points out that the original eight reindeer were all female.

Christmas isn’t the only holiday each December. Although it is named for the holiday, the site All Things Christmas does a pretty good job of providing background information on many celebrations.

The origin of Christmas is religious but in American culture it can be viewed as a center piece celebration for family, friends, love and nature. For me, the Merry Christmas greeting and the good wishes that go with it include sentiments involved in Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Winter Solstice ... even Festivus.

So to quote the last line in another famous poem, “Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night.”