Santa Letter

All About Rudolph and Santa’s Other Reindeers

Maybe it’s the undeniable alliterative appeal of Rudolph the Red-Nosed reindeer
that makes him the most known or popular of all Santa’s nine flying reindeers.
It certainly doesn’t seem as easy to come up with a similar catchy description
for the others – Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Donner and
Blitzen – as named in the song.
The story of Rudolph whose glowing red nose made him a standout, first appeared
in 1939 when Montgomery Ward department stores distributed about 2.4 million
booklets with the poem in the form of a story about “Rudolph the Red-Nosed
Reindeer.” It was written by Robert L. May, who worked in the store’s
advertisement or marketing department, to be used to attract more people into
the store. When the booklet was reissued in 1939, sales soared to more than 3.5
million copies. But it wasn’t until a decade later, in 1949, that the story
really gained immense popularity when Gene Autry sang a musical version of the
fable. As a Christmas song, it is second only in popularity to ‘White Christmas.’
Rudolph, the ninth reindeer whose lighted nose guides Santa’s sleigh through the
night, is now known worldwide as the song has been translated into more than 20
different languages and an animated television movie has also been based on the
story. Rudolph and his noticeable nose have also become the subject of jokes and
sparked more interest in reindeers which has led to much research into Santa and
the flying reindeers who pull his sleigh through the sky.
Along with the catchy rhythm of the lyrics, Rudolph’s story is also appealing
because of the moral lessons it contains. As the story goes, Rudolph was
ostracized by the other reindeers, which laughed and teased him about his shiny
red nose. But on a foggy night, when Santa must have been concerned that he may
not be able to deliver his Christmas gifts around the world, Santa spotted him
and kindly asked if he would step to the front as the leader to ‘guide my sleigh
tonight.’ His shiny red nose would after all be very useful in lighting the way,
Santa thought. From then on ‘all of the other reindeers loved him,” and rightly
predicted that he ‘would go down in history.’
Among the moral lessons the story can impart is that an attribute that is
perceived as negative or as a liability can be used for a positive purpose, or,
become an asset. It also makes the point that an individual should not let the
negative behavior of others define him or her and limit expectations of what can
be achieved. And it also illustrates how quickly opinions and attitudes about a
person can change.
The question still lingers however of where Rudolph came from. He is commonly
regarded as the son of Donner (or Donder), one of the original eight reindeers.
But the Snopes.com site rejects this however, saying that he dwelled in a
reindeer village elsewhere and it was there that he was seen by Santa who had
already started on his Christmas Eve journey to deliver gifts. And in a more
modern evolution of the story according to Wikipedia.com, an animation by the
British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) introduced a son, named Robbie, of
Rudolph. That son has now become the tenth reindeer.
It’s also interesting to note that the idea of Santa’s sleigh being pulled by
reindeers was originated in the poem, ‘Twas The Night Before Christmas.’ That
poem tells the story of St. Nicholas, who is Santa, calling his eight tiny
reindeers by their names, as previously mentioned, just before he came down the
chimney of a house to start filling the stockings from a sack full of toys he
carried on his back.

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Christmas Greeting Card History

One of the joys of the Christmas season is receiving Christmas cards. For many of us this is the only communication we have with some friends and family all year.  It is always good to get cards even if it’s from someone we didn’t send one to. It’s easy enough to add that person to the card list for next year if it arrived too late to send one this year.

In England in 1843 Sir Henry Cole, a wealthy and successful London businessman, commissioned John Calcott, an artist, to create a card that he could use to send Christmas greetings to his friends and business clients. This is the first known time a card was made for just this purpose.

In addition to sending Christmas greetings Sir Henry Cole wanted to raise awareness in his friends and business associates to the needs of the poor in London. The card that John Calcott Horsley created was a triptych which is a card with three-panels; the two outer panels fold in towards the middle panel. Each side panel showed a good deed being performed: people feeding the hungry and clothing the poor. The inside panel, with its depiction of a wealthy family a feast raising glasses in a toast, caused quite an uproar at the time.

One thousand cards were printed in black and white then hand colored. The inside message read “A Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to you.”  Neither Sir Henry Cole nor John Calcott Horsley knew the impact this first Christmas card would have on England or the United States. For several years many thought the idea of sending Christmas cards was just a passing fancy.

Somewhere around 1845 Americans began sending cards to each other through the mail. But it wasn’t until 1875 that Americans could buy cards made in the United States by a German immigrant, Louis Prang. Until that time they had to buy cards that were made in Germany.

The cards that Prang made were high-quality but expensive. In the beginning his cards didn’t look like what we think of as Christmas cards with the manger scene or Santa Claus. Rather his designs were mostly of floral designs. Americans became enthusiastic about Christmas cards, but not those made by Prang. In fact he was forced to close his business in 1890. His cards were just too expensive. Americans went back to buying cards from Germany and it was the cheap penny postcards that they favored. These cards were popular until the end of World War I. By the end of the war American companies had started making cards.

Today, more than 2 billion Christmas cards are exchanged each year.  As you send and receive cards this year may your heart be filled with the joyful Christmas spirit. Personalized photo cards at Cardstore.com

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