This month, John and Crosley have been sleuthing to discover the origins of some of their favorite holiday stories. Excelsior! You won’t believe what they found!

Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer

Our favorite misfit-to-hero reindeer was created by Robert L. May in 1939. That means Rudolph is now 85 years old! Mr. May had an assignment from the Montgomery Ward department store to write an original children’s book they could give away at Christmas. Mr. May chose to write about reindeer because his daughter loved to visit the reindeer at the Lincoln Park Zoo in Chicago, where they lived. Fog over Lake Michigan inspired him to give Rudolph his famous red nose that could lead Santa’s way. Mr. May also said he was a shy child who was sometimes bullied by other children. He used that experience to write one of the most famous holiday stories of all time. Montgomery Ward gave away 2.4 million copies of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer the first Year!

A side note: Crenwinkle helped with the research and learned that reindeer are the only species of deer in which both males and females have antlers. Male reindeer drop their antlers in winter, so when you picture Santa’s sleigh, those reindeer with antlers are females.

 

The Night Before Christmas

The story many of us know as The Night Before Christmas was originally titled A Visit from St. Nicholas, and it’s even older than Rudolph! In 1822—202 years ago—Clement Clarke Moore wrote the poem for his children. That sounds a lot like how Sand’s Hetherington created the Night Buddies books for his son, John! A friend sent the poem to a newspaper, and the Troy Sentinel published it just before Christmas in 1823. In the poem’s original version, some of the reindeer had different names. Donner was Dunder and Blitzen was Blixem.

The famous poem remains a mystery. For years, another family claimed that their father, Major Henry Livingston, Jr., was the actual author of The Night Before Christmas. Some people still believe that. John and Crosley continue to look for clues in the 200-year-old case.

Next week, we’ll talk about two more holiday favorites! Drop back by for a visit!