Originally Santa had 8 reindeer, as listed in the poem 'Twas the Night Before Christmas but in 1939 Robert L. May introduced us to the 9th Reindeer - young Rudolph. His booklet was published by a department store Montgomery Ward who clearly knew a good marketing tool when they saw one!
Original cover art for the book
You can read the story behind the story on Wikipedia here - Wikipedia Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer
The booklet was followed by a short animation (1948), THE song (1949), various comic books (1950 onwards) and an animated television special in 1964.
By this time Rudolph's story is firmly fixed in our Christmas traditions and he is indeed the "Most Famous Reindeer of all!"
There are so many versions of Rudolph on YouTube, here's a cute one:
And a Heavy Metal version! The lyrics are different but clean, if you are listening with children!
As with versions of the song, there are many cross stitched designs for you to choose from.
Lizzie*Kate Dear Rudolph
Nora Corbett Rudolph
Our own Daffycat has designed a series of small reindeer which I stitched into a cube finish:
Many of us have the annual Just Cross Stitch Christmas Ornament Special issue and there are always Rudolph charts in there. One of them is the April choice for a Facebook group - JCS Stitch Along
On the Runway by Snoflake Stitchery
Model photo from the magazine.
Looking forward to seeing a whole herd of Rudolph stitchery this month!
6 comments:
I love Rudolph. Thank you for the history behind him; it was very interesting. I think your finish is wonderful and he looks very dashing in his scarf.
Thanks Jo, it is always so interesting to learn about the history of things. I LOVE history, as you know.
Thanks for writing this up! I can't imagine Santa without Rudolph :)
Thank you so much! I love this background! We actually have the book of Rudolph, it's such a neat, old-timey keepsake that we bring out special for Christmas!
Love the story of Rudolph :0) he is such a special reindeer :0)
Hugs x
I love the cube you made with Daffycat's reindeers!
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