Cheryl's February Rudolph

This year I am stitching a small Christmas Sampler which includes many of the themes for the year.  I was fortunate to have Rudolph make an appearance just when I needed him or this month's theme.

The chart is from Cross Stitcher Magazine (Nov 2017).
Happy February!

February - Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer Inspiration

February's theme is one of the more modern Christmas Carols we have for this year - Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.

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!