Rudolph the Urban Legend

So how many Christmas specials have you watched so far?

I've been happily watching one after another with Momma, my Big Sister, and Grandmomma.

Next up? Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.

Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer is a stop-motion Christmas television special which first aired on Sunday, Dec. 6, 1964. (If you like bloopers, they accidentally used Roman numerals MCLXIV (1164) instead of MCMLXIV for the copyright.)

Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer first appeared in a 1939 booklet written by Robert L. May for a Montgomery Ward Christmas promotion. May's brother-in-law, Johnny Marks, decided to adapt the story of Rudolph into a song. The song was first sung on New York City radio by Harry Brannon in early November 1949, before Gene Autry released it on Nov. 25, 1949.

Rudolph has been telecast every year since 1964, making it the longest running Christmas TV special, and one of only four 1960s Christmas specials still being telecast - the others being A Charlie Brown Christmas, How the Grinch Stole Christmas, and Frosty the Snowman.

Incidentally, the lyric or line "All of the other reindeer" can be misheard as "Olive, the other reindeer", and has given rise to another character featured in her own Christmas television special, Olive, the Other Reindeer. (Olive mentions Rudolph to one of the reindeer, and he tells her Rudolph doesn't exist; it's an urban legend.)