Rudolph Sends Wrong Message

Rudolph Sends Wrong Message

The song of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer dates from 1939, when the Chicago-based Montgomery Ward company asked one of their copywriters to come up with a Christmas story they could give away to shoppers as a promotional gimmick. Robert L. May rejected a few names for the story (Rollo, Reginald) before landing upon Rudolph as the star of his short booklet. It wasn't until later when May's brother-in-law and songwriter, Johnny Marks, developed the lyrics and melody for the song we all know and love, that the phenomenon really took off. Gene Autry recorded the song in 1949, sold two million copies in that same year, and propelled it to an American Christmas standard.

The original story written by May was substantially different than the song later concocted by Marks. Rudolph originally lived with his parents in a non-descript reindeer village and was discovered by Santa when doing his rounds on a particularly foggy Christmas Eve. Santa noticed the red glow coming from Rudolph's room and asked him to lead his team to ensure a safe and happy Christmas for all. The song written by Marks could have been a story written by Hollywood; a downtrodden underdog is discovered for his secret talent which, until that moment, has been his reason for being outcast from society. In the original version, Rudolph's nose wasn't a hindrance to his social life.

If you truly analyze the song's lyrics, is it a message we want conveyed to our kids?

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