Reindeer are a very important part of the Christmas folklore, as they speed Santa's sleigh over the rooftops with toys for girls and boys all over the world.
Everyone knows that Rudolph - who has been immortalised in song and story - is the most famous reindeer of all, but what many people don't realise is that Rudolf is a comparatively recent addition to the Christmas story...the character of Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer, was created in America in 1939 for a group of departments stores!

It all came about when the Chicago-based Montgomery Ward Company (who owned a chain of department stores) tried to come up with a Christmas promotion with a difference. Instead of giving away colouring books to children, which were expensive to buy and not very original, they felt it would be far better - and cheaper - if they could produce an original Christmas story in their own booklet as a Christmas promotion.

It just so happened that one of the company's copywriters, 34-year-old Robert L. May, had a particular aptitude for writing children's stories and he was asked to take on the job of creating the booklet. It is said that May, who had been ridiculed as a child because he was shy, small and slight, drew on his own background in deciding on the character of Rudolph and came up with the idea of an underdog rejected by his reindeer colleagues because of his glowing red nose. In searching for a suitable name for his reindeer character, May is said to have considered Rollo, but decided it was too cheerful for the name of a misfit. He rejected the name Reginald as being too British, before settling on Rudolph.He wrote the story of Rudolph in a series of rhyming couplets which he tried out on his four year-old daughter, Barbara, who was delighted with the story of the red nosed reindeer. However, May's bosses weren't all that thrilled about it...in fact, they were concerned that the story might not be all that suitable for Christmas because of the association of a red nose with drinking and drunkenness!

It was only when they saw the illustrations for the story that they gave their approval for the project. The story of Rudolph turned out to be a brilliant success. Montgomery Ward distributed nearly two and a half million copies of the booklet in 1939 and in spite of paper shortages because of the Second World War, a total of six million copies had been handed out by the end of 1946. When the war was over, there was a huge demand for the licensing of the Rudolph character and a tremendous amount of money was generated by the story. The sad part about it was that Robert L. May, the man responsible for it all, didn't receive a penny because he was merely an employee of Montgomery Ward who held the copyright.

At this stage, May was deeply in debt. His wife had died and he found himself with huge medical bills to pay. Then in January 1947, May persuaded the corporate president of Montgomery Ward, Sewell Avery, to transfer the copyright to him. From then on, May was able to live a very comfortable life-style thanks to the popularity of the story of Rudolf. The Rudolph story was to receive a huge boost when May's brother in-law, a songwriter named Johnny Marks, produced the lyrics and melody for a Rudolph song. Strange as it may seem now, Marks' version of 'Rudolf the Red Nosed Reindeer' was turned down by many artists, but it was recorded in 1949 by Gene Autry.

In it's first year, it sold a phenomenal two million records and went on to become one of the best-selling songs of all time (second only to 'White Christmas'). A TV special about Rudolph narrated by Burl Ives was produced in 1964 and continues to be a huge holiday favourite in America.

Robert L. May quit his copywriting job in 1951 and spent seven years managing his creation before returning to Montgomery Ward, where he worked until his retirement in 1971. He died in 1976. It is interesting to note that the story portrayed in Johnny Marks' song differs in a number of ways from Robert L. May's original version. According to the Robert L. May's story, Rudolf didn't live at the North Pole...he was an ordinary reindeer who lived elsewhere. Of course, he was laughed at for having a shiny red nose, but he was part of a loving family and his parents were proud of him. Santa didn't pick him out from the reindeer herd because of his red rose. In fact, he discovered Rudolph completely by accident, while he was delivering presents to his house. Santa was worried that the thickening fog would prevent him from completing his Christmas Eve rounds, and he recruited Rudolph to lead his team of reindeer.