This evening, December 6, 2024, in honor of the 60th Anniversary of “Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer,” NBC will be airing a special extended version of the Rankin and Bass holiday classic. This year also marks the 85th anniversary of the original book that inspired this television classic. Now I understand Rankin and Bass took liberties with the original story to stretch it into an hour long television special. They added such colorful characters as Hermey the Elf, Yukon Cornelius, and King Moonracer. Alright it was 1964, so those were strange times with Moonracer and that spotted elephant. However, after reading the original version of Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer by Robert L. May, I realized Rankin and Bass did a lot more than add a few characters. They went out of their way to make Santa mean to Rudolph! In the original 1939 book, Santa was always extremely polite to our hero. In fact its overall message was that of kindness and respect, a far cry from the television show’s spin on the story.

I’m going to begin with the version that is most familiar, the 1964 stop-motion television special by Rankin and Bass. Not only were his fellow reindeer mean to the fawn with the glowing nose, Santa was downright rude. For example when first introduced to baby Rudolph, after seeing his glowing nose Santa proclaimed in astonishment, “great bouncing iceberg!” In a matter of seconds Santa went from “he’s going to be on my team someday,” to he’ll never work in this town again. Santa even went on to publicly humiliate Rudolph and his family when he chastised his father at flying practice by saying, “Donner, you should be ashamed of yourself. What a pity. He had a nice takeoff, too.” All these insults were too much for Rudolph’s tender heart to bear, and he ran away. Fast forward through a few weird plot twists and turns, and by the end of the show Santa is suddenly Rudolph’s best friend proclaiming, “you and that wonderful nose of yours,” will guide my sleigh tonight! Thankfully Rudolph didn’t hold a grudge, and they all flew off rescuing Christmas.

However, in the original book, written in 1939 and given to children as a holiday promotion for the Montgomery Ward department store, Rudolph didn’t even live at the North Pole. Instead, he was living with his family in a house somewhere on Santa’s delivery route. However, as with the television special, Rudolph was mercilessly teased by his peers because of his glowing nose. This made him sad, but as the book said, “Although he was lonesome, he was always good. Obeying his parents as good reindeer should.” This Rudolph was not one to run from his problems. He took a grin and bear it stance, hoping as he went to bed on that fateful night, that Santa would at least bring him nice presents.

Meanwhile, Santa was having a terrible night of his own. The weather was foggy without a single star or moon to guide him. As the story goes, “just not getting lost required all of Santa’s skills, with street signs and numbers more difficult still. He tangled in treetops again and again, and barely missed hitting a tri-motored plane!” Alright, although unintentional by the author, I admit I do find it comical imagining Santa needing to read street signs to find his way. But I digress. The point is this was not the Santa depicted decades later on tv as a pouty quitter, canceling Christmas all together due to a storm. This was Santa risking life and limb to deliver the presents! As he slowly made his way, worried about disappointing people if the gifts weren’t delivered before they awoke, he tripped his way through the dark houses, to the point of skinning his knees. That is until he came to Rudolph’s house, and was greeted by the sleeping reindeer’s glowing nose.

Now here is where the original book differs in the portrayal of Santa compared to the later Rankin and Bass special. In the book, it was repeatedly emphasized how polite Santa was to Rudolph! Rather than focus on the abnormal nose, Santa was heard telling his new best friend, you “may yet save the day, your wonderful forehead may yet pave the way!” That’s right, according to the author Robert L. May, Santa was “extra polite,” because “to call it a big, shiny nose would sound horrid!” Rudolph was flattered by the “wonderful forehead” comment, and immediately agreed to the plan. In fact, throughout the rest of the story May repeatedly avoided drawing attention to the actual nose, by complimenting Rudolph’s “err…forehead!” Another way the book differs is instead of rushing off in the night to save Christmas, the thoughtful reindeer paused to leave a note for his parents so they wouldn’t worry.

As Rudolph was helping Santa, his family eventually woke up and found the note he left. They in turn, along with the other reindeer who were mean to him, all gathered on the lawn to greet his return home. Now here’s another place where the television show departed from the original storyline. In the book the reindeer admitted although envious, they also felt “sorrier that they had been bad.” Sure in the Rankin and Bass version, Donner did apologize. But moments later he was heard taking credit for Rudolph’s success by saying loudly to Mrs. Donner, “I knew that nose would be useful someday!” Really, Donner? Because it wasn’t that long before you were trying anything possible to hide that nose by telling Rudolph, “There are more important things than comfort: self-respect. Santa can’t object to you now!” At least in both versions everyone eventually cheered for the once bullied reindeer.

If you would like to read the original version of Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, the manuscript is shared in “Writing ‘Rudolph’: The Original Red-Nosed Manuscript” (NPR December 25, 2013), and reprints of the book are available at bookstores. And for a comparison, the transcript to the television special is available at RankinBass.Fandom.com. I don’t know about you, but I sure wonder what Rankin and Bass had against Santa to go out of their way to make him so critical and rude! Although according to some accounts, they never actually read the story and based their version on the 1949 song written by Johnny Marks and sung by Gene Autry. However, even that doesn’t explain their harsh portrayal of Santa. Regardless, just like the song predicted, Rudolph certainly has gone down in history!